Editor’s note for Thursday, January 6, 2022

My thoughts today:

The two intractables might be a good name for two problems that the Chinese government and many economists and policy pundits believe need to be solved: That of residence permits (户口 hùkǒu), which prevent rural residents from enjoying social services in cities, and China’s lack of a property tax, which distorts the real estate market and has other harmful effects.

Both of these problems are brought up regularly by academics, journalists, officials, and state media, and every couple of years, there seems to be a sign that the government is finally getting serious about tackling one of them.

In October last year, after rumblings from Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 himself, the State Council announced that there would be “pilot property tax reforms” in certain regions.

But now the pilot will be delayed. Bloomberg reports that “the rapid deterioration of the real-estate sector and the lack of any detailed implementation plan from the State Council is fanning speculation that the government is waiting for a market uptick before it starts the tax.”

Not delayed in China: The electric car revolution. According to electric vehicle expert Michael Dunne, there were 3.3 million EVs sold in China in 2021, a year-on-year jump of about 254%. About 90% of those were passenger vehicles.

By comparison, there were 2.2 million EVs sold in the EU last year, and only 630,000 in the U.S. China accounted for more than half of all EVs sold globally.

More numbers to compare: The now two-week-long COVID lockdown in Xi’an has caused some distress to residents of that city — see our top story today — but there have been fewer than 2,000 cases, and not a single death. During the same period, New York City has had more than half a million cases and over 500 deaths.

If you’re travelling to China from the U.S. soon, there are new COVID-19 rules in place that will extend your isolation time and require additional tests. Travelers will need to start a 7-day self-health monitoring in the departing city starting January 13th. That means it’s going to take you about a month from the time of departure to when you can rejoin Chinese society. You can see the details here.

Our word of the day is nasal swab (鼻拭子bí shìzi), a process you will grow accustomed to if you have to travel to China from another country this year.

—Jeremy Goldkorn, Editor-in-Chief