Bank depositors in Henan province have been protesting for the release of their frozen cash, and on Wednesday, tanks from the Chinese Communist Party rumbled through the streets to scare the demonstrators.
Reports in the local media suggest Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) tanks are out in force protecting Banks (Rizhao, Shandong Province).
The media reports that this occurrence is linked to a statement made by a Bank of China branch in Henan, which stated that client cash are “investment products” and therefore cannot be withdrawn.
🚨🚨🚨🚨Breaking news🚨🚨🚨🚨
Tanks are being put on the streets in China to protect the banks.
This is because the Henan branch of the Bank of China declaring that people’s savings in their branch are now ‘investment products’ and can’t be withdrawn.
🔊sound pic.twitter.com/cwTPjGz84K
— Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) July 20, 2022
A tragic reminder of the June 4, 1989, slaughter in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, which happened when the Chinese government sent tanks and heavily armed forces to clear the square of student protestors calling for democracy and greater freedoms.
Teachers are told to ignore the crackdown, and the media and the internet are subject to strict controls. Hundreds, if not thousands, of peaceful protesters lost their lives as a result.
A limited number of depositors have received the reimbursements, creating serious worries about the banks’ reserve reserves, despite guarantees that depositors in China’s Henan villages would receive their frozen funds back in installments, the first of which was due on July 15.
More than a thousand depositors held their largest demonstration to date on July 10 in front of the Zhengzhou branch of the People’s Bank of China.
According to a letter from the Henan Provincial Financial Supervision Bureau, certain bank depositors in Henan’s villages and towns should have received their money on July 15.
However, sources outside of the mainstream media claim that just a few of depositors have really made these payouts. Furthermore, the compensation has not been mentioned in official Chinese media.
Allowing such incidents to escalate (like the Zhengzhou bank protests) demonstrates, claims the alternative media in Hong Kong, that these banks do not actually have money to spare, at least not until the problems are resolved, at a time when stability is prioritized above all else and stability is in the interest of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Leasing of land to businesses, especially those in the construction industry, is a significant source of revenue for municipal governments. However, many construction companies have ceased buying new property because of the abundance of incomplete projects, reducing tax income for municipalities.
Meanwhile, Tsinghua University professor Zheng Yuhuang predicted in a video that China will have difficulties in 2022. According to Zheng, there will be 4,600,000 business failures in China during the first half of the year, 3.1 million industrial and commercial households will be written off, enterprise liquidation will rise 23% from the previous year, 10.76 million college graduates will enter the workforce under heavy employment pressure, and 80 million young people will be unemployed.
Reports in the media suggest that the reason the issue of homebuyers suspending loan payments has not been addressed sooner is that nearly every successful real estate developer is a member of a powerful family within the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) elite, like Xu Jiayin of Evergrande (one of China’s largest property developers) and Zeng Qinghong of Zeng Group.
Regular real estate developers must pay officials at all levels of government to gain approval for their projects. If the CPC’s senior leaders are serious about investigating the corruption surrounding unfinished buildings and properties, they may have to de facto point the knife at themselves.
During the widespread bank depositor protests in Henan province demanding the release of frozen funds, white-clad men, who are reportedly members of the Chinese People’s Armed Police Force, dispersed the protests in front of the Zhengzhou branch of the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), as reported by local media.
There were several demonstrations attended by hundreds of depositors in Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan province, but the Chinese authorities paid them no attention.
