One has to wonder if some of this demolition is being performed because so many of them are structurally deficient due to what has come to be called “tofu dreg” construction and if they aren’t demolished they will fall down by themselves as some already have. This isn’t just a problem in the ghost cities, but elsewhere in China as well.
China has spent trillions of dollars building these ghost cities, money that would have been better spent elsewhere in the Chinese economy, perhaps expanding its infrastructure. Instead, both the government and individuals invested their money in real estate that is now becoming worthless. Those kinds of losses must have a huge effect on the Chinese economy as people who bought apartments in these ghost cities as an investment and developers who built these cities see their money disappear as the value of that real estate collapses and developers and investment firms default on the bonds that helped finance all that construction.
Now add in the effects of the tariff ‘war’ between the U.S. and China and one has to wonder if the Chinese economy is on the edge?