On August 20, Chinese Evergrande Group founder Xu Jiaying was sentenced to life imprisonment for multiple charges including fundraising fraud and embezzlement. Following this, topics such as “What should the owners of Evergrande’s unfinished properties do” surged on Weibo’s trending topics.
In the morning of August 20, the Intermediate People’s Court of Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, publicly pronounced the first-instance judgment on the defendants Evergrande Group Co., Ltd. (referred to as Evergrande Group), Evergrande Real Estate Group Co., Ltd. (referred to as Evergrande Real Estate), and the defendant Xu Jiaying.
For Evergrande Group, they were convicted of multiple crimes and fined 8.82 billion yuan; Evergrande Real Estate was fined 7 billion yuan; Xu Jiaying was sentenced to life imprisonment for multiple crimes, with his personal assets confiscated, illegal gains to be recovered, and the shortfall to be compensated.
On that day, topics like “What should the owners of Evergrande’s unfinished properties do” and “Unfinished houses, still have loans” trended on Weibo.
Netizens posted, “Many ordinary people who exhausted their savings to buy Evergrande’s unfinished properties have already been sentenced to life. The plight faced by the owners of Evergrande’s unfinished properties this time is not just about property prices fluctuating, it reflects the implicit indifference permeated through the years of collective waiting.”
“While the internet buzzes about Xu Jiaying’s past extravagant lifestyle, countless owners of unfinished properties are still dealing with the pressures of reality. In the heyday of the company, executives were extravagant, but after the debt exploded, it’s the millions of ordinary people who foot the bill. This huge disparity is the most heartbreaking aspect of this case.”
“The government sells land and receives money, the banks loan without loss, only the ordinary people give away their hard-earned money, tying themselves to decades of mortgage but unable to live in their houses.”
A post from “Willa Legal Worker” on behalf of the legal community stated, “A few days ago, I chatted with a client who described how he lost his savings due to investing in Evergrande, now he relies on driving for Didi to make a living as he hasn’t finished paying off his car loan. When mentioning Xu Jiaying, he simply said, ‘He has no conscience,’ with a tone and expression that can only be described as numb to the despair of life.”
“Recently, I visited the Evergrande Health Valley and saw a whole area of unfinished properties, heard that some owners are still fighting for their rights. Like that client said, some people inflate during the times of prosperity, losing their conscience. The ones who suffer the most are the owners of Evergrande’s unfinished properties. I wonder if local state-owned enterprises will take over?”
A post by the Netease content creator “Lost Book Child” said, “Behind the 6 million properties are 6 million families. Some emptied six wallets to pay the down payment, still paying monthly mortgages while renting elsewhere. Some awaited this property for marriage, for children’s education, for bringing parents from their hometowns for retirement. Some bought it as a retirement home, saved a lifetime of savings, but now the house is not in hand, and they have aged…”