A recent report that a Beijing real estate tycoon had purchased
a US$$2.2-million Rolls-Royce car has triggered online condemnation
of profiteering property developers in China.
The custom-built stretch Rolls-Royce Phantom is the most
expensive car the British automaker has ever made, said Ian
Robertson, chairman and chief executive of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars
when unveiling the Peninsula Hotel's 14 new Phantoms last week in
Hong Kong.
The super-luxury car sold to the anonymous tycoon boasts a 6.7L
V12 engine, an LCD entertainment system and three rows of
seats.
The report has drawn hundreds of comments from netizens on
Sina.com, China's biggest portal website, with the vast majority of
them criticizing the extreme extravagance, according to the
Beijing Evening News.
"Do some charitable work if you're rich," a netizen was quoted
as saying. Another wondered whether the buyer had made excessive
profits and evaded taxes as a real estate developer.
A cynical netizen described the buyer as a "devil that amasses
great wealth by profiteering" saying the Rolls-Royce Phantom came
from the hard earnings of "housing slaves." The "housing slave" is
a new expression in China referring to people who use most of their
salary to repay bank loans due to soaring housing prices and rising
mortgage rates.
Property developers are among the richest business people in
China. They're also one of the most criticized groups being widely
believed to be at least partly responsible for the rampant
corruption in the real estate sector and soaring housing prices in
major cities.
They're often accused of pursuing outrageously high profits and
building houses that low-income families can't afford.
A recent nationwide crackdown on false accounting has revealed
that some real estate firms "cooked" their books. The 39 real
estate firms surveyed had registered an average profit margin of
12.22 percent in 2005 but inspectors revealed the true average
profit margin was 26.79 percent, according to the Ministry of
Finance.
Fictitious transactions and fake contracts were brought to light
revealing the firms to be flagrant tax evaders.
(Xinhua News Agency December 20, 2006)