China's Debt Burden: From Cities to Countries.

Local governments in China, already in debt from borrowing to pay for massive infrastructure, are taking on additional debt to build more roads, railways, and industrial parks, even though the economic returns on that activity are increasingly meager. In their struggle to find the money to fund their new projects and the interest payments on their old ones, cities are cutting public services and benefits. Many local governments in China failed to pay heating subsidies for natural gas during the winter, leaving residents to shiver during a record-setting cold wave.