The Economists.
While China remains a nation of big savers, a growing number of people are cash-trapped,
and the government's policy to boost consumption has been met with little enthusiasm.
Last week on Drum Tower, we looked at how the savings of many middle-class Chinese
are now trapped in China's moribund housing market.
Today, we turn to the other side of the ledger, debt.
We'll meet people, many of whom seem successful,
who are nonetheless struggling to keep up with repayments.
I'm Jiehao Chen, The Economist China researcher and Drum Tower producer.
This week, I'm joined by James Miles, our China writer-at-large,
and we're asking, why are so many Chinese people drowning in debt?
This is Drum Tower from The Economists.
Hey James, welcome back to Drum Tower!
Hi Jiehao, I'm joining you from my home studio today,
where I've discovered, in fact, an additional use, I should say, for Xi Jinping's Thoughts.
These very thick volumes on the governance of China
actually also provide a rather useful rest to put my microphone on top of and my laptops.
So, good use for these.
Well, funny you should say that.
The last time I was in Beijing, I was at the Beijing Book Fair,