People in Huggang are not excited about Xi's goal of common prosperity. They're more focused on their day-to-day lives and what the government is doing to help them make money, they say. People who were trying to operate small businesses feel that the government is looking for more astringently applying restrictions or fines. No matter how generous their take is on their situation the reality is that if we accumulate and add all of these situations up nationally that is not going to help see our China achieve their goal.
Hegang, a remote coal town in northern China that faced a mountain of debt, was forced to undergo an unprecedented financial restructuring. And it’s not alone. A local debt problem in some of China’s cities threatens to be a drag on the world’s second-largest economy for years to come.
Bloomberg’s Colum Murphy and James Mayger join this episode from Beijing to talk about what’s happening in Hegang and other cities, and why China’s local debt challenges may be felt well beyond its borders.
Read more: China’s $23 Trillion Local Debt Mess Is About to Get Worse
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