In two Chinese provinces, people have not been allowed to withdraw their money since April
Grim images reminiscent of the bloody events of Tiananmen Square in 1989 have taken over the world’s news agencies and social media. Chinese People’s Liberation Army tanks have taken to the streets of some cities to protect banks from the wrath of people whose money is stuck in vaults.
The latest such video is from the protests in Henan. In the past few weeks, there have been clashes between the police and depositors who have been unable to withdraw their savings since April. After the protests escalated, tanks were deployed in the streets to protect bank branches from direct attack. And the very aggravation of the situation came after a statement from Bank of China’s Henan office that customer deposits are “investment items” and therefore cannot be withdrawn.
According to local media reports, after the protests in Henan’s capital Zhengzhou, the authorities said they would begin releasing deposits of people whose funds were blocked in a number of provincial banks. As a result, however, money has been paid out to a negligible number of depositors, raising the critical question of whether banks even have the reserves to withstand mass withdrawals.
The issue first surfaced in April when the South China Morning Post reported in an article that residents of Henan and Anhui provinces were denied access to their money in banks due to a “system upgrade”. Since then, bank deposits at Yuzhou Xinminsheng Village Bank, Shangcai Huimin County Bank, Zhecheng Huanghuai Community Bank and New Oriental Country Bank of Kaifeng (in Henan) and Guzhen Xinhuaihe Village Bank (in neighboring Anhui Province) have not been paid.
People have been told to “wait patiently,” the South China Morning Post reported on Monday. Those with less than 50,000 yuan per vlog ($7,400) received their money last week, but others are still waiting. Chinese authorities said the banks at the center of the dispute were taken over by the Henan Xincaifu Group through “internal and external collusion” and “illegally” lured depositors. An investigation into the banking scandal is underway.
THE BLOODY TIANANMEN
Due to the appearance of tanks in the streets, almost all Western media make an allusion to the bloody events in Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
On On June 4, 1989, China’s Communist leaders sent tanks and heavily armed military forces to clear the square where students had gathered for weeks in demonstrations calling for more civil rights and freedoms. Then hundreds of unarmed demonstrators died.
–
