From October 20-22, along the banks of Shanghai's Huangpu River, the 2026 Sustainable Global Leaders Conference returns once again. Nobel and Turing Award winners will share their visions of the future of technology and its trends, and the internet-famous professor who "rescues" people from anxiety and the rat race era — Macfarlane and Xiang Biao — will hold a live dialogue! Limited spots available, first come first served. Let us join together for the sustainable appointment! [Click to register] Source: Shangwen. On August 20, 2026, Xu Jiayin was sentenced to life imprisonment in the first instance. On the same day, Country Garden Board Chairman Yang Huiyan was in her Foshan office signing debt restructuring forms. Regarding Xu Jiayin's fate, the Yang father and daughter were certainly not watching as amused bystanders. After all, the landmine at Country Garden (ASX: 02007) is actually more troublesome than that of Evergrande.
Evergrande's liabilities exceeded 2.4 trillion yuan, which sounds terrifying, but the harm cannot be judged by numbers alone. After Evergrande's collapse, there were approximately 778 projects that had not resumed construction and were awaiting delivery; whereas Country Garden (ASX: 02007) had 3,121 projects under construction at its peak, four times that of Evergrande. Evergrande's projects were mostly in first- and second-tier cities, where core locations actually had no shortage of buyers to take over. In contrast, Country Garden (ASX: 02007)'s more than three thousand projects were scattered across third-, fourth-, and fifth-tier county towns and rural areas, where population outflow and declining housing prices made it very difficult to revitalize all of them. Both left unfinished buildings, but Evergrande's properties had people scrambling to take over, while Country Garden (ASX: 02007)'s county-town properties attracted no interest. Moreover, the creditors were different too. What Evergrande owed was mainly to financial institutions, which could still be handled in a centralized manner. Behind Country Garden (ASX: 02007) were suppliers, construction teams, and millions of ordinary homebuyers. First-time buyers in small county towns and working-class families who emptied their savings and took on mortgages feared most that their homes would stall.
In terms of operations, Evergrande pursued aggressive expansion and reckless investment; Country Garden (ASX: 02007) relied on high turnover and thin profit margins. When the market was good, selling buildings in 4 months and collecting payment in 5 months was a skill; when the market was bad, once funding was cut off, thousands of projects nationwide halted simultaneously. In March 2023, Yang Huiyan took over; in August, the US dollar bond interest defaulted. In February 2026, she and core executives were publicly criticized by the Shanghai Stock Exchange for information disclosure violations. By June, the share price was 0.186 Hong Kong dollars, with a market value of approximately 8.6 billion, a decline of nearly 98% from its peak, becoming a penny stock.
But the path chosen by the Yang father and daughter can be said to be completely the opposite of Xu Jiayin's. Xu Jiayin left unfinished buildings, wealth management products, and supplier debts within the country, while moving what could be cashed out abroad. Yang Huiyan donated 20% of Country Garden (ASX: 02007) Services shares to the Guoqiang Public Welfare Foundation (Hong Kong), worth 6.4 billion Hong Kong dollars at the time; Yang Guoqiang lent 300 million US dollars to the company interest-free and sold two private jets. At the toughest times, he personally visited construction sites to supervise work and did not leave. Meanwhile, debt restructuring was also being pushed forward: the 17.7 billion US dollar offshore debt took effect on December 30, 2025, and nine domestic debts totaling 13.77 billion yuan were unanimously approved, reducing overall debt by nearly 90 billion. In 2025, nearly 170,000 units were delivered, and over the past four years, more than 1.85 million units were guaranteed for delivery. Yang Huiyan designated 2026 as the final year for guaranteed housing delivery and proposed a "second startup." But truly reaching shore is still far off.
In the first half of 2026, revenue was approximately 44.08 billion yuan, down 39.3% year-on-year; net loss was approximately 16.44 billion yuan, a reduction of 16.3% compared to the same period last year. However, equity sales in the first half were only approximately 14.25 billion yuan, and the auditor issued a "disclaimer of conclusion" on the interim financial report, with significant uncertainty remaining about going concern. Xu Jiayin transferred assets and received life imprisonment and asset confiscation; his son did not escape either. Had he cooperated with judicial proceedings, kept everyone within the country, and handed over the houses, he should have at least been able to exchange for room for self-rescue.
Yang Guoqiang was born in 1954, and Yang Huiyan took over at 41, inheriting not a throne but a volcano. Country Garden (ASX: 02007) and Evergrande are both in the same swamp; the only difference is when the bad accounts surfaced. Country Garden (ASX: 02007) still has more than three thousand projects, trillion-yuan liabilities, and two hundred thousand units awaiting delivery. But at least they are still repaying debts, still delivering houses, and still at the table. The difference between Xu Jiayin and Yang Guoqiang is not ability but choice. One moved money out and left behind a mess; the other sold jets to inject funds and delivered houses one by one. Yang Guoqiang may not be better at making money, but he is clearer about where the bottom line is. It is just that Country Garden (ASX: 02007)'s road to survival continues.
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