China
A group of angry suppliers to China Evergrande Group are threatening to stop paying their bank loans to protest the struggling developer's unpaid bills, hitting a property sector already reeling from a mortgage-payment boycott, Nikkei Asia reported. China has seen a wave of debt defaults among real-estate developers including Evergrande, which is saddled with about $300 billion in liabilities.
The saving opportunity with the rural bank in central China looked, to Sun Song, a 26-year-old-businessman, like a great find, the New York Times reported. It would be linked to his existing account at a large, reputable state-owned bank. The rural bank was also offering high interest rates, making it seem like an ideal place to park his roughly $600,000 in savings. Then the bank abruptly froze his account this year, and officials said they were investigating potential fraud. “I owe money on my credit card and have to repay my car loan,” he said. “I have two sons.
Two U.S. congresswomen made a bipartisan call for companies to take action to comply with a newly operative U.S. law intended to block the import of goods made with Uyghur forced labor, the Wall Street Journal reported. The remarks underscored congressional concern over enforcement of a law that presumes that goods with ties to Xinjiang, the home region of China’s Uyghur minority, have been made with forced labor. The law, which went into effect last month, gives U.S. Customs and Border Protection the power to stop their import. Reps.