Archive of content related to the wave of small and medium-sized enterprise bankruptcies.
Data from the China Hairdressing and Beauty Association shows that in the first three months of this year, 213,000 hair salons nationwide were deregistered, closed, or transferred, while 127,000 new ones opened in the same period, resulting in a net decrease of 86,000.
According to netizen submissions, multiple merchants in the Chengdu hardware and electromechanical market have recently closed their doors due to fears of being fined during 3C certification inspections. It is rumored that a merchant selling Delixi products was fined 80,000 yuan, while another was fined over 200,000 yuan. It is reported that hardware markets in Sichuan and Chongqing have all shut down.
On October 22, the CSI 300 index closed down 1.84%, falling about 20% from its June high and entering a technical bear market; according to Bloomberg, the STAR 50 and ChiNext indices have both fallen about 40% in the second half of the year, and analysts believe the national team may need to buy more and for longer.
According to a report by Yicai on October 22, from January to September 2026, nationwide urban and rural residents' household electricity consumption was 123.46 billion kilowatt-hours, down 0.3% year-on-year — the first decline for the same period in nearly ten years.
After the National Day holiday, many netizens reported on social media that their companies had closed down or their bosses had fled. Some factories were emptied out during the holiday, leaving workers with months of unpaid wages and nowhere to seek payment. Netizens claim that the National Day holiday is a peak period for bosses to flee, as doing so allows them to avoid settling wage payments.
On October 1, Time Finance reported that Zhang Qiang (a pseudonym), a homestay operator at a scenic area in Jiangsu, said that three years ago the best room type could sell for 700–800 yuan a night during the National Day holiday, but now even listing it at 580 yuan still brings no orders; more than 100 homestays cluster in his area, making price competition fierce.
From January to May 2026, Beijing's total retail sales of consumer goods fell by 2.5% year-on-year.
In the first half of 2026, the country saw a net decrease of 410,000 catering stores, corroborating the reality that retail sales of consumer goods are actually declining significantly.
Simulations and calculations show that, in order to hold to the general budget target, the government's continued intensification of tax collection would make the tax base and corporate profits unable to bear the load, and the moment the red line is burned through falls around October 2028.
According to data cited in the video, in the first five months of 2026, China's land transfer revenue fell by nearly 30% year-on-year, a steeper decline than for the whole of 2025.
On September 14, 2026, a shop in Guangzhou officially announced its closure due to business difficulties.
On September 20, 2026, due to extremely poor business in September, many people chose to return to their hometowns and were waiting at the bus station.
Reports on September 21 showed that the unemployment rate among non-student youth aged 16 to 24 in China rose to 18.9%, amid a continuing economic downturn. Although multiple economists have warned that AI is unlikely to drive employment, Beijing still plans to invest approximately $295 billion over the next five years to build a national data center network. Xi Jinping emphasized the importance of focusing on "hard power" rather than just GDP.
On September 17, Evergrande Auto released its 2026 interim results, showing that the company has only 7 employees left, with total assets of approximately 182 million yuan and liabilities as high as 32.722 billion yuan. The company explicitly stated that it has exited the vehicle manufacturing business and has no intention to resume it, with the net profit for the first half of the year mainly derived from exchange gains on borrowings.
Affected by low-price competition and high commission fees on e‑commerce platforms, merchants in the Hebei industrial belt have independently built a B2B platform “Hebei Involution Net”, featuring factory direct supply with no commissions, aiming to bypass intermediate platforms and connect directly with purchasers, scheduled to launch on October 1.