Since April, thousands of savers of four regional banks have no more access to their savings. Sunday, a rally was violently dispersed.
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Originally from Heilongjiang, in northeast of China, Mr. Yu, 33, crossed half of the country to try to hear from his economies. On July 10 at dawn, he joined hundreds of savers whose assets, with four regional banks, have been frozen in mid-April. In Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan, in the center of China, they found themselves in front of the local branch of the People’s Bank (the central bank). On shared videos on social networks, we see them holding banners, proclaiming in white sinograms on black: “No to the corruption and violence of the Henan government! The Chinese dream of 400,000 families has been reduced to crumbs. “
A little before noon, troops of hundreds of plainclothes men loaded the crowd, and Mr. Yu (he only gives his family name) was dried up, before being dragged into a bus, a bloody eye. “I put all the savings of the family in this bank: a million yuan [146,800 euros]. We can no longer buy anything,” sighs the man, released a few hours later.
Mobilization has lasted since April 18, when customers of four banks in the Henan province discovered that they could no longer withdraw their money. On the application of the bank and in distributors, a message indicates that the system is being updated. The Central Bank is launching an investigation, which challenges a financial platform accused of having “illegally raised funds” on behalf of the four banks. The weeks pass, but the situation is bogged down. At the end of June, the police announced several arrests: “The case implies old crimes, many suspects and a complex scenario”, said the police press release.
Not enough to ease savers, more and more to come together to make their voices heard, a sign that the economic difficulties that the country is going through can quickly result in “social instability” so much feared by Beijing. Because, behind the four establishments involved, the situation of 4,000 rural banks worried, while the economy is weighed down by the zero covid strategy and by a latent real estate crisis. “These less known regional banks generally offer high interests to attract savers. They lend the money collected to local governments, state companies, but especially to property developers, who take significant risks. Recently, it There have been a lot of real estate defects, “explains Dan Wang, chief economist at the Hong Kong Bank Hang Seng.
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