Police lock down Beijing’s financial district to thwart protests

Hundreds of police officers locked down Beijing’s financial district on Monday to prevent protests over the crisis in peer-to-peer lending platforms, highlighting the government’s fears over crowd anger directed at financial regulators.

Teams of police and security guards were gathered at every corner of the intersections near the offices of banking and securities regulators, as well as at the entrance to the underground train stop for the financial district. They checked the identity cards of everyone entering the square kilometre that is home to Beijing’s domestic and international banks.

Groups of investors who had lost money in the recent collapse of P2P platforms had organised to demonstrate in Beijing on Monday morning, according to protesters and social media accounts. But only a handful showed up during the morning rush hour, and were immediately taken away or put on to buses by police.

China’s online P2P lending market is the biggest in the world, with Rmb1.2tn ($180bn) in loans outstanding at the end of last year, according to industry monitoring service Diyiwangdai.

But over the past two months a wave of defaults shocked families who believed their investments were safe. In July alone, 221 platforms experienced “problems”, compared with 217 such cases in all of 2017, according to Online Lending House, a research group that tracks the industry.

The group defines “problems” as investors being unable to withdraw money, police investigating a platform, or owners running away.


The surge of discontent over P2P losses has highlighted the way in which risks in the Chinese financial system could potentially translate into more widespread unrest. Many who lost money are now questioning why the platforms were allowed to portray themselves as government-approved, and why local authorities could not do more to recover their savings.

Ms Chen, a single mother who had invested almost all her family savings in P2P platforms, said that she had expected many more protesters from her various social media investor groups to show up. According to social media posts, police had stopped P2P protesters at train stations and airports across the country from travelling to Beijing over the weekend.

Along with almost 70,000 others, Ms Chen was owed money by Hepan Finance, which recently went into liquidation while owing Rmb790m to its investors.

“I’ve done nothing criminal. I’m just an ordinary citizen,” she said, standing in front of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, adding she was alarmed to see so many police in the area.

A team of six police officers and security guards came to check Ms Chen’s ID. “Have you come here to raise P2P issues?” one policeman asked. “Yes,” Ms Chen replied, and was escorted away by the team. Just yards down the same street, a man was yelling “Stop restraining me!” while being forcibly removed by another group of officers.

“As of today, many suspects involved in those financial crimes are still at large, and victims’ investments are still constantly being laundered,” read a petition posted by the Twitter user identified as @jinrongnanmin — a handle that translates as “financial refugee” — who claims to represent many Chinese peer-to-peer investors.

“The retreat of some P2P lenders is part of a normal market clean-up,” ran a headline in the state mouthpiece newspaper People’s Daily on Monday, in an attempt to assuage investors.