Is JPMorgan Chase Profiting Off of Forced Evictions in China?

[marmar]

(Rolling Stone) In recent years, forced evictions have become a flashpoint for demonstrations across China. International watchdogs have called the practice a human rights emergency on a massive scale. Often carried out in coordination with cash-strapped local governments, these evictions have "resulted in deaths, beatings, harassment and imprisonment of residents who have been forced from their homes across the country in both rural and urban areas," according to a 2012 Amnesty International report. "With no access to justice some have turned to violence or even self-immolation as a last resort."

Amid this heated debate, several overseas bond-selling documents show that some of America's largest banks, including JPMorgan Chase, have helped to raise money for Chinese real estate companies that have expended considerable resources on demolishing buildings and "relocating" people for their recent projects in China. (It's important to note that the revelations in these documents do not necessarily point to the level of the injustices in the Amnesty report.) Two bond-selling documents, both marked 'Strictly Confidential' but uploaded to the website of Singapore's stock exchange, state that, in 2012 alone, a company with bond sales facilitated by banks like JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup called Kaisa Holdings devoted more than $1 billion RMB, or $160 million USD, to "demolition and resettlement" costs relating to its real estate projects. Other overseas bond documents show that in recent years, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase helped to sell bonds for a Shanghai-based real estate firm called Future Holdings, which spent $131 million RMB on demolition and resettlement costs in 2011. Dispelling any notion that Future Holdings and Kaisa Holdings might be engaging in some sort of happy form of human relocation, both documents use similar language to make clear that disputes with original inhabitants of land they buy might cause "protests or legal or other proceedings."

The bond-selling documents reviewed by Rolling Stone contain similar or identical language regarding demolition and resettlement issues. Judging by the documents, it appears as somewhat standard for Chinese real estate companies to include such warnings to potential investors about having to relocate people for development projects. Each document makes some mention of compensation for residents who become the subjects of resettlement. The Future Holdings document indicates the duty to dispense such payments is often up to the local authorities involved, while Kaisa speaks of paying residents directly. "The compensation we pay for resettlement is calculated in accordance with certain formulas published by the relevant local authorities," the Kaisa document states.

Few of the thousands of demonstrations against land dispossession around China each year receive media attention. A major exception is the coastal city of Wukan, where residents facing mass resettlement overthrew the local government after a local anti-eviction advocate died under suspicious circumstances while held by Chinese authorities. The New York Times identified a large Chinese real estate company named Country Garden as a player in attempting the massive land-grab that triggered the 2011 uprising (Country Garden denied any involvement). In 2013, JPMorgan Chase, along with Goldman Sachs, facilitated a round of bond-buying for Country Garden, according to Reuters. (A prospectus draft indicates that the two banks assisted with another round of funding for the bank in 2014.) ..............................(more)

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/is-jpmorgan-chase-profiting-off-of-forced-evictions-in-china-20150210#ixzz3Sfp7bhqu

[ND-Dem]

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