Evergrande Default

Xu Jiayin — founder profiled in the Chinese Founder Ledger — is documented as follows: former steelworker who founded Evergrande and built it into China's largest real-estate developer before its 2021 default on roughly $300 billion in liabilities; detained by Chinese authorities in 2023, pleaded guilty in April 2026 to fraud, embezzlement and bribery charges, and was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court on August 20, 2026. The profile is grounded in the 4 sources indexed for this founder.

Evergrande defaulted in 2021 on roughly $300 billion in liabilities after government curbs on excessive borrowing and speculation narrowed its access to credit, an event the Guardian describes as emblematic of broader distress in China's property sector.