Weekend Long Read: Why China’s Property Tax Is Still a Long Way Off

The ongoing property downturn in China has taken a harsh toll on local governments, adding to the urgency of finding more sustainable sources of revenue for them other than land sales.

As a new Peterson Institute working paper discusses, a nationwide property tax seems a suitable candidate. But can a property tax, what Jay Rosengard of Harvard University calls the tax “everyone loves to hate,” really happen in China any time soon? My answer is that it is unlikely.