Xi reshapes China property market, paving the way for state dominance

For any government, overhauling a nationwide residential real-estate market would be risky under the best of circumstances. Chinese President Xi Jinping (ç¿’è¿‘å¹³) is attempting it at a time when the economy is slowing, the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 is threatening his "zero COVID-19" policy and relations with the outside world are increasingly fraught. As that perilous combination takes a growing toll on Chinese financial markets, one question keeps popping up: What is Xi's endgame? Given the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) opacity and its history of backtracking on property reforms, the answer is impossible to know for sure. Illustration: Mountain People…