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this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2026
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Mildly Interesting
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Tbh, China has had a huge debt and property crisis the past few years. The US Republicans like to complain about debt (which they primarily cause, but that's a different discussion) but China's debt to GDP ratio is 3 times higher than the US.
A lot of this is brought on by all of the housing construction that China's been doing the past couple decades to dodge recessions. Many Chinese families now own several homes, most of which are uninhabited, for use as an investment vehicle. And most of these homes have been bought with debt.
The problem with China's situation is that a lot of these homes are build in giant blocks in the middle of nowhere, creating giant ghost cities with almost nobody living in them. Plus these housing block are not made well, with improperly mixed concrete, so they won't last very long, making them a terrible investment.
Add the fact that China's birthrate has plummetted below replacement levels, and the Chinese population is about to start quickly dropping, meaning there will be little demand for housing, causing any values these homes had to drop as well.
China is in a "calm before the storm" style of situation at the moment, but in a few years it's going to get bad
The "ghost city" thing is an outdated myth. China built up development for long term plans in anticipation of future demand, intending for them to be underpopulated in the short term.
Bloomberg - China's Ghost Cities Are Finally Stirring To Life After Years Of Empty Streets
60 minutes ran a story in 2013 using the Zhengzhou New Area as an example of a "ghost city." Today, it's population is 1.3 million.
This is one of the limitations of capitalism and that perspective, that relies solely on market signals to determine what to build when. If there's an undeveloped region, there's not going to be a lot of people want to live there. But if you build up the infrastructure, it creates demand. China still has a very large rural population and is trending towards urbanization.
Source? The only thing I could find similar to that claim was this which lists China's total public and private debt at 300% GDP. The same figure for the US is 265% GDP. Comparing only central/federal government debt, the IMF lists China's at 88% GDP and US at 120% GDP.