Matter of Life and Debt

The bustling coastal city of Shenzhen in Guangdong Province, south China, has a special place in the country’s economic development. This is where the first special economic zone was established in 1980.

Now the industrial hub is poised for another signpost. The first personal bankruptcy regulations are to go on trial here this year, which may pave the way for other cities to follow suit.

The seeds of the experiment were sown in 2010, two years after the global financial crisis. Before the catastrophe, Nanling, a village in Shenzhen, had been developing at a tremendous pace since reform and opening