Alex Zhang carefully hitched the fortunes of his construction supplies company to some of the wealthiest cities in a coastal sliver of China. Payment from government-backed contractors looked assured in Hangzhou, Suzhou and Nanjing — industrial juggernauts sat in a cluster of eight provinces that contribute nearly half of the nation’s gross domestic product.
Fast forward four years, Zhang is owed 10 million yuan ($1.4 million) from finished projects, as even China’s rich regions suffer from the nation’s economic slowdown. Desperation drove him to splurge 100,000 yuan on two meals for shadowy intermediaries, who emerged boasting of powerful connections in Beijing to help him get paid and find new work — a last-ditch effort Zhang said didn’t seem likely to free his money.
"I haven’t seen a single successful case yet,” said Zhang, 38, of the middle-men preying on those with mounting bills. "Local governments are running out of cash. It takes years to get paid. We’ve been squeezed hard — I just want to quit.”
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