Mortgage boycotts that began in Jiangxi, China have spread to nearly 100 cities across the country, threatening over 320 real estate projects. They add more trouble to a property market that was already in turmoil and portend future pain in the world’s second largest economy.
On this week’s episode, hosts Mike Bird, Soumaya Keynes and Alice Fulwood are joined by our China economics editor, Simon Cox, and our China business and finance editor, Don Weinland, to find what’s causing the crisis. First, University of California San Diego associate professor Victor Shih explains why the roots of this crisis go as far back as the early 1990s. Then, investor Andrew Left re-evaluates his report from 2012 in which he said the now-bankrupt Evergrande - once China’s second-largest property developer - was a fraud. The call got him banned from trading on Hong Kong’s stock exchange. And finally, they ask what this could mean politically for the Chinese government.
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