A mortgage boycott that began in China’s Jiangxi province has spread to nearly 100 cities across the country, threatening more than 320 real estate projects. They add to the problems in an already turbulent real estate market and portend future pain for the world’s second largest economy.
In this week’s episode, hosts Mike Byrd, Soumaya Keynes and Alice Fulwood, along with China Economy Editor Simon Cox and China Business and Finance Editor Don Weinlund, explore the causes of the crisis. First, Victor Shih, an assistant professor at the University of California, San Diego, explains why the roots of this crisis go back to his early 1990s. Investor Andrew Left then reassessed a 2012 report that said the now bankrupt Evergrande — once his second largest property developer in China — was a fraud. The call resulted in him being banned from trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange. And finally, they ask what this means politically for the Chinese government.
Running time: 39 minutes
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