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Debt-ridden Chinese cities face brutal cutbacks
American Thinker ^ | 05/23/2023 | Thomas Lifson

Posted on 05/23/2023 7:46:30 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

The debt trap is ensnaring many of China's cities.  While Americans properly worry about the ballooning federal debt, China is already beginning to experience a crisis due to debts incurred by local governments.  Bloomberg has a long article focusing on the city of Hegang, in the northeast province of Heilongjiang.  Hegang, with a population of nearly a million, is in decline along with its coal industry and experiencing brutal spending cuts in order to keep up with its interest payments.

Hegang's residents are now feeling the brunt of the fiscal clampdown. During a recent visit to the city, locals complained about a lack of indoor heating in freezing winter temperatures, and taxi drivers said they were being slapped with more traffic fines. Public school teachers worried about rumored job cuts, and street cleaners endured two-month delays to their salaries.

Outside the city's largest hospital, a middle-aged orderly wearing green scrubs and a mask said her employers unilaterally changed her work contract from a government-run medical facility to a third-party vendor, reducing benefits like paid overtime for working on holidays. Her monthly wage of 1,600 yuan ($228) had been delayed by more than 10 days every month since late last year.

"I'm upset about the situation," said the woman, who asked not to be identified in order to talk freely about her work conditions, as she pushed a wheelchair loaded with flattened cardboard boxes to an outdoor recycling point. "Everything is so expensive. I can barely get three square meals a day." 


Hegang (photo credit: STW932CC BY-SA 4.0 license).

Hegang is experiencing problems that likely will spread elsewhere in China:

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. estimates China's total government debt is about $23 trillion,


(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; China; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: china; cities; cutbacks; debt
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1 posted on 05/23/2023 7:46:30 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind
This is the future throughout the world, as living on a "credit card" and making minimum payments, whether as an individual, a group, a company, a state or nation, comes to the same end.

As the title says, "cities face brutal cutbacks." Use Chinese as an adjective, or American or European or third-world, but the math is the same. This is why history is littered with defaults and abrogations of debt, as with write-downs and revolutions. Those who think this is untrue are fools or beneficiaries of the game. Tick tock.

2 posted on 05/23/2023 7:51:46 AM PDT by Worldtraveler once upon a time (Degrow government)
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To: SeekAndFind

Which means war.


3 posted on 05/23/2023 7:51:55 AM PDT by Jonty30 (If liberals were truth tellers, they'd call themselves literals. )
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To: SeekAndFind

The entire world economy has to collapse for the Great Reset to take over........ .


4 posted on 05/23/2023 7:53:26 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: SeekAndFind

I have not kept up with all the changes in China.

But just saying, it seems stunning to talk about a capitalist problem of making interest payments on debt, relating to China. President Xi has a pen and a phone, to make this problem disappear, doesn’t he? Since he is a totalitarian dictator?


5 posted on 05/23/2023 7:56:14 AM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: SeekAndFind

Eat more General Tso’s Chicken!


6 posted on 05/23/2023 7:58:42 AM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer” )
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To: Jonty30

> Which means war. <

You beat me to it. War is a tried-and-true way to distract the restless masses.
China might give it a go. And so might Biden.


7 posted on 05/23/2023 7:59:15 AM PDT by Leaning Right (The steal is real.)
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To: Jonty30

The building boom of China was done by cooking the books with state owned enterprises. The cities are all new, and the consumption of concrete, steel, glass, etc made the government officials look great at every level up the chain.

Before, the export economy supported this addiction. No longer.

Covid closures showed the supply chains that they could not trust the CCP to be business first, and now everyone is finding new sources. Chinese labor costs are triple that of Mexico, for instance. BTW - Covid is running rampant in China again right now, with 65 million infections per week, but people are still working this time.

I’m going to Shanghai next month - it will be very interesting.


8 posted on 05/23/2023 8:00:49 AM PDT by datura (Eventually, the Lord and the Truth will win.)
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To: SeekAndFind
Well, now they're all seeking to get into the U.S.:

‘These Numbers Are Staggering’: Chinese Migrants Continue To Surge Across Southern Border

https://dailycaller.com/2023/05/22/these-numbers-are-staggering-chinese-migrants-continue-to-surge-across-southern-border/

Those migrants will all be voting Democrat - like the ones that came before them and for a continuation of what they left back in the old country.

Asians vote ≈ 65% Democrat

9 posted on 05/23/2023 8:02:10 AM PDT by Bon of Babble (What did Socialists use before Candles?..... Electricity)
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To: SeekAndFind

It’s not just the cities, the entire Chinese economy is a house of cards.


10 posted on 05/23/2023 8:04:11 AM PDT by Highest Authority (DemonRats are pure EVIL)
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To: datura

Give us an accurate of what you see on the ground. I will be looking for it. The CCP can’t hide the small stuff, which may give clues to the big stuff.


11 posted on 05/23/2023 8:04:29 AM PDT by Jonty30 (If liberals were truth tellers, they'd call themselves literals. )
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To: Jonty30

I will be quite happy to let you know what I see. I’ve been going to China on occasion since 2009, so I saw the growth years - the huge construction boom.

This will be my first visit to Shanghai, and my in laws are not Party members- so I’ll be seeing daily life there. (But staying in a very nice hotel - this is my one vacation for the year.)

Thank you for your interest.


12 posted on 05/23/2023 8:10:41 AM PDT by datura (Eventually, the Lord and the Truth will win.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Select any large city in the U.S.

“Everything is so expensive. I can barely get three square meals a day.”

China building back better too.


13 posted on 05/23/2023 8:13:58 AM PDT by Vaduz (....)
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To: SeekAndFind

The problem with command economies like China’s is eventually ‘the elites’ move in for their own benefit - - and the system collapses...

Capitalism’s the only economic system that creates enough layers that an idiot can run the country without ruining it. (well, not forever but for enough years so we can elected someone other than President Sniffer)


14 posted on 05/23/2023 8:19:51 AM PDT by GOPJ (American companies: YOUR Ad Agency needs to look like America NOT like a San Francisco Gay bathhouse)
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To: datura
The problem with command economies like China's is eventually 'the elites' move in for their own benefit - - and the system starts collapsing.

During that time there's a 'get tough' with 'the corrupt' .. but it never works. Show trials, the boot, won't work because it's bad incentives. A change on 'who makes the rules' is telling but won't solve the problem. So while your visiting China see who's being blamed for the current problems... that's a hint about what stage they're at.

Capitalism's the only economic system that creates enough layers that an idiot can run the country without ruining it. (well, not forever but for enough years until we can elected someone other than President Sniffer)

15 posted on 05/23/2023 8:30:19 AM PDT by GOPJ (American companies: YOUR Ad Agency needs to look like America NOT like a San Francisco Gay bathhouse)
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To: SeekAndFind
What about all these abandoned CCP-Chinese cities?
16 posted on 05/23/2023 8:31:34 AM PDT by Carriage Hill (A society grows great when old men plant trees, in whose shade they know they will never sit.)
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To: Carriage Hill

Xi Jin Ping is planning a FORCED relocation of millions of people to some of these ghost cities to “unghost” them.

See here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhddWm3RKdY


17 posted on 05/23/2023 8:36:38 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Being unmaintained for so many years, those places are deteriorating and crumbling; lots of ‘repairs’ to do.

Thanks for the link.


18 posted on 05/23/2023 8:38:11 AM PDT by Carriage Hill (A society grows great when old men plant trees, in whose shade they know they will never sit.)
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To: SeekAndFind

The Chinese Communist Party = Democratic Party


19 posted on 05/23/2023 8:39:46 AM PDT by butlerweave
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To: Leaning Right

I was thinking the same thing too. A convenient excuse for war.


20 posted on 05/23/2023 8:47:34 AM PDT by SpaceBar
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