Dirk Hanlon reports: a traveller back from China finds it never richer, and grumbling about money. Gus has found a country that gets him. Dot: nobody the traveller met talked politics; on Hainan Island a runaway property boom has halted, and a retiree who spent all his savings on an apartment there saw it lose over a third of its value. Officials call reporting on it anti-China bias. Gus is not grumbling, he's biased.
In a China that has never been richer, nobody the returning writer met voiced political dissent, but many grumbled about the economy, especially on Hainan Island, where a runaway property boom has ground to a halt and a retiree who spent all his savings and borrowed to buy an apartment there has watched it lose more than a third of its value; officials call reporting on such anxiety anti-China bias.
▶ Keep watching in the feedStarring
Tags
Source
A Long Way From Deng
New York Times · Oct 12, 2026
