The Chinese dream has turned into a nightmare

In 2020, one of the world’s most heavily traded bonds was a 2025 note for China Evergrande Group. Investors loved the debt of the Chinese real estate conglomerate for several reasons: It was liquid; it was tied to one of the biggest companies in the country; and it gave them a piece of the world’s ­second-largest economy. It also heralded a major transition for China, symbolising an era of turbocharged growth that had put it on a path to one day surpass the US. No longer was the country going to be merely a factory to the rich world—it would have its own consumerist middle class, with beautiful apartments and all the furniture,…