@nytimes reporter covering China and Asia, but mostly China. Got a tip? alexandra.stevenson@nytimes.com GPG
: 2E59 A14F 698F EBBA https://keybase.io/jotted
Je kan informatie over je locatie aan je Tweets toevoegen, bijvoorbeeld je stad of exacte locatie, via het web en applicaties van derden. Je kan altijd de locatiegeschiedenis van je Tweets verwijderen. Meer informatie
Here’s the problem: govts like this one borrowed for years to create jobs. Much of the money went to building vanity projects — sprawling complexes that often end up empty. As debt soared, regulators tried to tamp down but places like Ruzhou found new & more risky sources of $$
It’s a little like whack-a-mole. “Officials stop one today, and they come up with another tool tomorrow” is how one expert put it. Here’s the most shocking part. Much of the debt is hidden, and by some estimates could be as much as $8 trillion. That’s half of China’s GDP last yr
So officials are trying to force local gov’ts to come clean about their debts. Now comes the double whammy for cities like Ruzhou. China’s economy has slowed by its most in 3 decades which means they can’t grow out of their problems. And Beijing has turned off the lending taps
Which is why for a brief moment earlier this year, Ruzhou appeared to go to its nurses and doctors for money. But when I traveled there with @caocli this summer, we didn’t know any of this. We were just hunting for white elephants
But we left with a police escort. More on that here: https://nyti.ms/2X06qCx But back China’s debt problems. Ruzhou is just one of many cities and towns that appear to be running out of money
Here’s why it matters: “Imagine the economy is a ship like the Titanic,” one analyst told us. “Local government debts are like cargo containers piled up on its deck. There are already lots of cargo containers piling up.” Read more herehttps://nyti.ms/2p7jkCb
Twitter is mogelijk overbelast of ondervindt een tijdelijke onderbreking. Probeer het opnieuw of bekijk de Twitter-status voor meer informatie.
