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Chinese TikTokers are taking it upon themselves to investigate whether or not the troubled real estate giant is resuming work on its construction projects.
In videos posted on the Chinese version of TikTok, Douyin, several content creators were seen visiting the construction sites of Evergrande’s various real estate projects with drones and other filming equipment.
Evergrande is now the most indebted company in the world. It’s currently facing more than $300 billion in liabilities. The company’s failure to pay off its debts set off tremors across regional and international markets and sparked a debt crisis across its real estate and wealth management arms. It also caused work on most of Evergrande’s 800 development projects across China to pause over the summer.
“Well, you can see that things are boarded up. And over here, the workers’ dorms are all empty,” Lu said, filming his walk around the site.
Undeterred from not being let past the barricades, Lu filmed himself sending a drone up to check out construction progress.
“I’ve flown over the entire development. You can see from the footage that no work is happening,” Lu said.
In another video uploaded on October 5, Lu also filmed himself visiting another Evergrande construction site in Shenyang.
“There are no sounds of construction and no movement. Seems like nothing’s happening at this development, too,” Lu said, posting footage of the quiet construction site.
Another TikTok account with the ID Heng Da Fu Gong Le Ma posted multiple videos detailing visits to various construction sites in Lishui city, in the southern province of Zhejiang. The user’s latest video, posted on October 5, showed footage of garbage and steel pipes strewn around an empty construction site.
“Back at the construction site here in Lishui, no sound can be heard, and no movement can be seen,” read the caption on another video posted by Heng Da Fu Gong Le Ma.
Other TikTok users also recorded the grim sight of abandoned and decaying construction site. One TikTok user with the ID Lao Cheng Zhao Fang wormed his way around the barricades at Evergrande’s Urumqi Yang Sheng Gu development to film the site, which appeared empty and devoid of activity.
“Even the scaffolding was removed at some areas here, despite the place being half-built,” he pointed out in his video. “This looks really bad.
Some TikTokers did, however, find encouraging signs that construction work was resuming in some areas. TikTok user Xi Yang Shuo Fang posted a video on September 25, showing herself visiting an Evergrande site in Luoyang and interviewing two Evergrande employees, who said there was some construction work going on, albeit with far fewer workers.
Another TikTok user with the ID Xi An Yi Yang Fang Chan visited an Evergrande construction site in the city of Xi’an, in the central Shaanxi province, on October 3. At the site, he filmed a crane moving and several workers milling around the area.
Evergrande claimed last week that it had resumed work on 46 real estate projects in cities across China. The real estate juggernaut made multiple posts on official WeChat accounts of local offices in the southwestern province of Guizhou, and the southern cities of Shenzhen and the Pearl River Delta, complete with what appeared to be time-stamped images of work resuming at various projects.
Evergrande did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment on whether work was resuming at its other projects.
Source: yahoo!news