Authorities are preparing province for a possible collapse of Evergrande

While customers and investors fluctuate between hope and fear when looking at the Chinese real estate giant Evergrande, authorities are preparing local governments for a possible collapse of the group. The "Wall Street Journal" reports. This makes it increasingly unlikely that Beijing will bail out the country's second largest real estate developer with a cash injection. Evergrande threatens to collapse under the weight of an estimated $ 300 billion in debt. The sum corresponds to two percent of the Chinese gross domestic product. Local administrations and state-owned companies have been instructed to prepare for a "possible storm," the report said. Should Evergrande fail to get the problems under control, they should be able to fix the consequences "in an orderly fashion". But they should only intervene "at the last moment". A big problem is that Evergrande has demanded prepayment from its customers and many apartments are not completed. They fear that if Evergrande crashes, their already paid apartments will not be completed. According to the report, it is the job of local authorities and companies to prevent protests. They should also ensure that the consequences for Evergrande customers and the regional economy are limited. The provincial governments now have to use advisers to check how the Evergrande projects are being funded in their administrative areas. At the same time, they have to talk to state and private real estate companies about the extent to which the projects can be taken over and continued in the event of a collapse. But that's not all: Law enforcement agencies are supposed to put together teams to identify anger among the population and "mass events" - a euphemism for protests.