Panic Sweeps Across China As Bank Runs Intensify And Cash Shortage Leaves Millions With No Money

07/15/2022
Epic Economist

Jul 13, 2022 Bank runs continue to spark immense chaos all across China – and this time, things are getting heated. Since last week, thousands of people took the streets of major Chinese cities to ask banks to unfreeze their deposit accounts only to be dispersed by heavy-handed security personnel and remain at risk of losing all of their savings. Four big Chinese banks have frozen millions of dollars worth of deposits in April, telling customers they were upgrading their internal systems. But by now, the population has lost their trust in the institutions and the government. According to economists and experts, the country’s huge $54 trillion financial system, which is more than double the size of assets across U.S. commercial banks, is collapsing. China is on the precipice of a serious debt crisis, and the implosion of the nation’s real estate market and the ongoing bank runs are only symptoms of a much bigger problem.

Civil disorder is sweeping across China as infuriated citizens demand four major rural-based banks to unblock their assets after months of having their accounts frozen with no reasonable explanation. Over the weekend, a large crowd of angry customers gathered in the streets of major Chinese cities to express their growing frustration, but many ended up injured or taken away by local authorities.

Local media outlets estimate that the total amount of frozen deposit across the various banks could be worth up to $1.5 billion. For its part, the Chinese government said it is conducting a thorough investigation in the bank’s balance sheets.

For several months, the institutions have only been serving a limited number of customers per day, with some of them limiting how much each client can withdraw – oftentimes, no more than 1,000 yuan (or about $149). Meanwhile, others closed their branches altogether. Citizens say that even ATMs are empty, which is making it impossible for many of them to pay their monthly bills.

Reuters reported that the peaceful demonstration was interrupted by local authorities who announced from a vehicle with a megaphone that the gathering was an illegal assembly and demonstrators would be detained and fined if they didn’t leave. Some of the officials were out of their uniforms and wearing white T-shirts to blend in with the crowd and start dismantling the protest from within.

A number of experts highlighted in a recent interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation that the recent bank runs and the country’s collapsing real estate market are merely symptoms of a much more serious issue. China’s unacknowledged debt crisis is actually causing cash shortages and ensuing bank runs, noted Gordon G. Chang, author of “The Coming Collapse of China”.

The country’s real estate market crash has dramatically contributed to its impending debt crisis, “which is the ultimate cause of the nation’s widespread bank runs,” pointed out Jennifer Zeng, a human rights activist and the host of the YouTube show “Inconvenient Truths”. “The collapse of the real estate market will bring double problems for the banks. Both the developers and home buyers will have problems paying back the loans or mortgages. That’s why the banks are having problems with their funds,” Zeng emphasized.

If things in America start to unfold in the same way that’s happening in China, soon we could be the ones experiencing a cash shortage and witnessing widespread bank runs. At the same time, the whole world could be in danger of facing another financial catastrophe as both of the globe’s leading economies collapse into chaos. Needless to say, we've been warned time and time again that taking on more and more debt was a slippery slope. The consequences are clear. A reckoning has begun, and if I were you, I would start figuring out ways to take my assets out of the system while it's still possible.

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