In the harsh reality of the student loan dilemma comes yet another wrinkle to add to the misery of a situation that keeps young people trapped in debt for many years. Everyone is told how important is is to get a college education when it all is, for the most part, a racket. Few ever get to apply what they absorbed in four years at college and most employers are going to train someone how to do a particular job anyway.
The vicious cycle continues but Chinese gangsters have recently added a demeaning twist. Peer 2 Peer online loan “companies” in China are now demanding naked photographs as collateral for even the smallest of micro loans.China’s banking system is a corrupt shadow world even at the best of times but independent loan brokers are often times little more that loan shark operations where desperate people, especially university students, are forced to go to chase the disjointed dream that they are forever being told they need to chase.
The majority of these loans demand interest of 30% or more. In one southern Chinese province, Guangdong, lenders are demanding that students, especially female students, pose for nude photos while holding their college ID’s and are told that the pictures will be published online, especially on social media, if they fail to repay their loans or if they don’t pay on time or miss a payment.
The loans are offered at the seemingly legitimate lending site called Jiedaibao but, more often than not, the terms of the loan are done online at another location away from the lending site. The gangster’s prey are mostly the young people because they have little experience, no leverage and no power at all.
Of course, for the Chinese lenders, having naked pictures of their clients on file is just another way for them to enforce the payment on the debt. It joins other enlightened strategies such as property damage, and physical abuse and injury to both themselves and loved ones. Having one’s legs broken is hardly unheard of.
China’s huge and most popular social media platform, Weibo, has been aflame with comments going both ways.
“These loans are like opium. Why does the regulatory authorities ignore them?”
“Are they deserving of sympathy? No they are not. You should spend the money you are able to make. Why do you spend money you don’t have the ability to earn”
And so the cycle continues…
PHOTO CREDIT: Kim Kyung-Hoon, Reuters