Xi Wields Carrots and Sticks to Quash China Mortgage Boycotts
- There are now at least 319 mortgage boycotts across nation
- Granting concessions could encourage copycats, analysts say
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Chinese President Xi Jinping is turning to a tried-and-tested playbook to deal with an unusual type of protest, as tens of thousands of homebuyers refuse to pay their mortgages.
Over the past few days, authorities have moved quickly to quash a surge of public discontent, censoring crowd-sourced documents that tallied the escalating number of mortgage boycotts across China -- a number that reached 319 on Friday. On the other hand, Xi’s administration has urged local governments and financial institutions to find ways to complete unfinished projects into which ordinary citizens have poured their life savings.