NEVERMIND THE PIG; THERE IS NO POKE:

The trigger for the buyers' strikes is a widespread belief among these protesters that the funds homeowners have paid in advance to the builders of these property developments have been misused.

Under the presale system, buyers deposit money in an account before the property is built. Chinese banks and local authorities are obligated to monitor developers' use of these funds. Developers are not supposed to have access to all of the money until they have hit certain pre-agreed milestones during the building process.

But buyers have recently complained that many banks -- whether or not local authorities are aware is unclear -- have been providing loans to developers before the required stage of work has been reached.

Buyers have also complained that, although these funds should have been kept in designated escrow accounts that regulators can monitor, sometimes they are not, enabling developers to evade regulations.

Overall, these buyers believe loose regulation of funds has provided some developers with both the temptation and ability to keep investing in new projects, by borrowing more before current projects are completed.

Indeed, a commonly observed pattern in China's property development industry is for developers to purchase lands, pledge them to banks to get loans, start projects, begin the presale process with buyers and then use these funds to purchase lands for other projects.

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