Not Your Mother’s Ghost Town: Evergrande Board of Directors, 2021
In the summer of 2021, China Evergrande Group, once the world’s most valuable property developer, is teetering on the edge of collapse. With over $300 billion USD in liabilities and a sprawling portfolio of incomplete, empty, and overvalued developments, the company’s once-celebrated growth model now threatens to destabilize China’s financial system. Its unfinished apartments and speculative megaprojects, emblematic of decades of aggressive real estate expansion, have left both investors and homebuyers questioning whether the boom years of Chinese property are finally over.
Delegates in this committee will assume the roles of Evergrande’s Board of Directors (BoD) at a critical inflection point. As directors, they have unprecedented access to the company’s financial levers, including bond restructuring, asset liquidations, negotiations with regulators, and crisis communications. However, their decision-making powers are constrained by an environment of public anger, aggressive government regulation, and volatile capital markets. Internal disputes and external pressures will shape every move, forcing delegates to balance profit, survival, and political alignment in equal measure.
This is more than a financial crisis. It is a crisis of public trust, corporate legitimacy, and the stability of China’s economy. The BoD must determine whether to double down on risk, retreat into damage control, or fundamentally transform Evergrande’s operating model. Every decision will have consequences: for the company, for China’s real estate sector, and for the political establishment tasked with maintaining social and economic order. Delegates will navigate an environment where one miscalculation could mean corporate collapse or even personal legal liability.
