The impact in Vancouver is huge, and has been for quite a long time.
Vancouver has always had a substantial chinese minority, as railway
labourers settled in the city immediately upon its founding as the
railway terminus.
This link has led to steady trickle of chinese immigration, which
became a flood in the waning years of the last century as the
clock ticked down on the 1997 repatriation of Hong Kong. This
was the first wave of wealthy chinese; the growing wealth of
mainland China rapidly picked up the slack in the wake of the
repatriation, and it has steadily increased, so that I believe
the influx must now be at least equal to the rate of the late
90s. Wikipedia lists Vancouver as 19% chinese ethnic background
as of the '06 census, and the one just completed will likely
show another 2% increase as has been the trend. As an aside,
this should contribute to putting the white population into
the minority this time around; the south asian population
is another contributor, but intermarriage is a strong third.
The impact of wealthy chinese has been notably seen in the
housing market. Vancouver has not seen any slide in overall
housing prices in the last decade. Though some subtypes and
neighbourhoods have seen stagnation if not subsidence at times,
the relentless upward drift of luxury homes has boosted the
average well into the positive.
-Pete
On Thu, 16 Jun 2011, Keith Hudson wrote:
> At 15:07 16/06/2011, Raywrote:
> >Good job Keith. Do you have anything to say about the migration of
> >the Wealthy Chinese from China to America as Harry pointed out recently?
>
> My initial reaction to the article was to be a little sceptical
> because I haven't noticed much (if any) mention of rich Chinese
> immigrants in the US, UK or European press either as businessmen or
> moving in select social circles. Very rich Chinese are certainly
> starting to buy residential properties in the most expensive parts of
> London and may also, as far as I know, be doing so in America but, of
> course, very rich Arabs have been doing that for years without
> necessarily living here permanently. But those who have more than 100
> million yuan (about US$12 million), as mentioned in the statistics by
> Bains & Co, etc, may only be middling rich in Chinese terms. There
> are several hundred Chinese billionaires and over 300,000 Chinese
> millionaires, so I would like to see a further breakdown in the
> figures as to the ages of the immigrants and what their mean wealth
> is. I suspect what's going on is that the new immigrants are older
> people who've now cashed in their family businesses and want to live
> out their retirement in a less polluted environment -- and also, in
> many cases have children already in America at school, college or
> doing research and want to stay permanently afterwards.
>
> KSH
>
> >
> >REH
> >
> >From: [email protected]
> >[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Keith Hudson
> >Sent: Thursday, June 16, 2011 5:25 AM
> >To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, , EDUCATION; D and N
> >Subject: [Futurework] China's Emergency Plan C
> >
> >Natalie,
> >
> >As you were kind enough to ask me, here are a few more comments for
> >you to chew over. (I was tired last night and my bed was calling me!)
> >
> >While Europe and America are proceeding towards their respective
> >train crashes (unpayable governmental debts) China is now quietly
> >proceeding with Plan B as fast as it can.
> >
> >But what was Plan A? This was the naive belief on the part of the
> >Chinese government in the past few years that they could persuade
> >America by rational argument to take part in founding a new world
> >trading currency. I am, of course, not privy to the details of what
> >the new world currency would be based on. The Chinese Politburo
> >might have conceived it to be based on the free market price of
> >gold. Or on the price of grain. Or on the price of energy. Or on a
> >balanced package of existing national currencies. Who knows? It
> >scarcely matters, so long as it was on a basis that alters only
> >slowly from year to year.
> >
> >No matter. The US Treasury (the true masters of US financial policy)
> >repeatedly sent the Chinese packing with a flea in their ear. This
> >has been public knowledge for the past two years or so. (The Chinese
> >were probably trying privately for several years previously. In my
> >opinion, ever since Deng Xiaoping's launched China's free-market
> >reforms in the 1980s.) Anyway, it looks as though the Chinese have
> >now given up on this hopeless quest. As they watch the printing
> >presses (or digital keyboards) of the US Federal Reserve or the
> >European Central Bank -- and many other central banks -- churn out
> >more of their national currencies they must be saying to themselves:
> >"Those whom the Gods wish to destroy, They first make mad."
> >
> >So what is Plan B? It is to promote the renminbi (yuan) to world
> >class status as a universal trading currency. This would displace
> >the dollar and the euro from their present 55% and 40%
> >duopoly. This has been public knowledge (to the observant) for
> >about two years now, ever since the Chinese government enrolled
> >about a dozen major Western banks, such as HSBC and JPMorganChase as
> >their associates. Their job is to acquire enough renminbi in their
> >cash reserves so they can give credits to any of their customers
> >which are negotiating trade transactions which could be carried out
> >in renminbis. At a higher level, the Chinese government are now
> >making more formal agreements (actual trading floors at both ends)
> >with other governments so they can more directly exchange their
> >national currencies with the renminbi, rather than going through the
> >dollar or the euro as intermediaries (with their risks of daily
> >fluctuations due to speculators).
> >
> >So far, at various stages of fruition, these arrangements involve
> >Russia, Brazil and about a dozen more countries. After about a year
> >of Plan B, the renminbi accounted for 1% of world trade. A year
> >later, this reached 7%. By now it's probably at least 10% and
> >heading towards 20%. Given no financial catastrophes in Europe or
> >America (on which China still depends as export markets) then the
> >renminbi will probably reach about 30%, this being the size of the
> >trading market which Chinese firms (governmental and private)
> >presently have -- directly -- with other emergent countries.
> >Overall, this would then approach the "multipolar" trading currency
> >of something like 30:30:30 (dollars, euros, renminbis) that some
> >economists are already forecasting.
> >
> >But this doesn't take into account that the emergent countries
> >already occupy about 55% of world trade and is still growing
> >relative to the advanced countries. Within that, the direct trade
> >between China and the emergent world would also be growing. Within a
> >few years the multipolar currencies could easily arrive at a
> >20:20:60 ratio. But this also assumes that there'll be no shocks to
> >the dollar or the euro along the way. If the US Bond market in
> >America, or the Eurozone collapses (either would also trip off the
> >other) then the ratio could become 0:20:80 or 20:0:80 overnight. Or
> >at least within a few days, depending on whether China decides to
> >save America or Europe. Either would probably give just enough
> >export market (in addition to the emergent countries) for China to
> >barely survive. China would not be able to afford to save both (as
> >it is helping to do at present by holding a large part of American
> >government debt) and would have to save one or the other because it,
> >too, would be in desperate circumstances. (My guess is that China
> >would save America and also a German-northern European detachment
> >from the ex-Eurozone.)
> >
> >I'm sure that China does not have a Plan C as such, any more than
> >America had in the years before the Bretton Woods 'Agreement' of
> >1944 when, as a by-product, it displaced the pound as the
> >predominant world trading currency and replaced it with the dollar.
> >It was "all for the best in the best possible world" as Dr Pangloss
> >would have said. So it would be with Emergency Procedure C. The
> >renminbi would perforce have to take the place of the dollar
and/or the euro.
> >
> >China's Plan B can't be avoided. But what about Emergency Procedure
> >C? This could be avoided. Western and European governments could do
> >what the Chinese government always does. This is to establish total
> >control over its banks by insisting on sufficient reserves. In its
> >own inflationary difficulties from time to time, the Chinese
> >government not only adjusts its interest rates but also its banks'
> >reserves (governmental and private), thus preventing undue credit
> >expansion. American and European governments haven't done this for
> >20/30/40 years. They've been running on 0% for several years now
> >even though the Bank for International Settlements (the central bank
> >for central banks) has been telling them how foolish they have been.
> >In effect, the banks and the financial sector have been in control.
> >No wonder the credit-crunch finally found them out (that is, both
> >governments and banks). Even now, knowing what must be done, they
> >are still largely only talking about it, with only feeble nods in
> >that direction.
> >
> >Keith
> >
> >Keith Hudson, Saltford, England
> ><http://allisstatus.wordpress.com/2011/06/>http://allisstatus.wor
dpress.com/2011/06/
> >
>
> Keith Hudson, Saltford, England http://allisstatus.wordpress.com/2011/06/
>
