Evergrande founder sparks backlash after asking employees to ‘work hard’ through ‘adversity’

September 22, 2021

China Evergrande Group’s former chairman Xu Jiayin has earned the ire of Chinese social media users after a

Fanning the flames: Evergrande founder Xu Jiayin, whose current net worth slightly dropped to $10.7 billion, angered people online after a letter he penned was shared on Weibo, reported Business Insider.

Xu reportedly sent the letter out to 123,276 Evergrande employees during the Chinese Mid-Autumn festival, which occurred Sept. 21.
In the letter, the founder urged his workers to “unite and work hard in the face of adversity” and assured them that the company would soon “walk out of the darkness.”
Immediately after National Business Daily posted the letter on Weibo, it became a trending topic and attracted over 100,000 comments.
Some users cited the company’s massive debt to show that Xu is “delusional” and what he wrote was “nonsense.”
Another user hinted at rumored unpaid salaries in the company, saying the founder’s message was “pretty interesting” especially since it came from “a man who cheats people of money and his workers of their salaries.”
Several users wanted to know what would happen to properties that were already paid for by homeowners but left unfinished. “It’s not going to be built, is it?” a user asked.
According to some comments, Xu deserves to be jailed. “I hope this is Xu Jiayin’s last Mid-Autumn festival as a free man,” one comment said. “He has to pay for this chaos he’s caused and all the people who have suffered.”

Evergrande’s troubles: China Evergrande Group, formerly the second-largest real estate developer in China, is facing a massive liquidity crisis brought about by years of borrowing, NextShark previously reported.

With a debt of over $300 billion, the company has struggled to pay overdue bills and multiple wealth management products.
Suppliers and creditors are now demanding payment for hundreds of billions of dollars in outstanding bills, while homebuyers are seeking justice for the unfinished apartments that they have already paid for.
Amid growing fears that the company will collapse before they get their due, protesters have been flocking to its headquarters in Shenzhen in the last few weeks.

Featured Image via CGTN (left) and 每日经济新闻 (right)

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