One of China’s most debt-ridden provinces asks Beijing for help in now-deleted online post
- Researchers in landlocked Guizhou surveyed some of the province’s most indebted cities and found it ‘impossible’ to solve their debt problems at local levels
- Local-level debt has long been a problem in China, but the pandemic and a raft of other economically crippling policies have hindered debt-relief work
The local government overseeing one of China’s most indebted provinces has openly admitted that it is grasping at straws to solve its debt problems, while calling on help from Beijing.
Authorities with the Development Research Office of Guizhou province said in a since-removed article posted to the provincial government website on Tuesday that, “due to limited financial resources, it is extremely difficult to advance debt-relief work”.
“And it is impossible to effectively solve [the debt problem] by relying on [the local government’s] own ability.”
The conclusion was drawn from data collected by the office’s researchers when surveying some of the most indebted cities in the southwestern province, including Guian, Zunyi, Bijie and Liupanshui.
“The survey found that debt has become a major and urgent problem facing local governments [in the province].”