China: Old vs New – How will the Chinese use credit?

Over the weekend, I read how some Chinese are good savers. Today, I also read an article that CitiBank will start issuing credit in China. This is an interesting convergence of Chinese culture’s emphasis on savings while perhaps embracing the newer ideas of short term borrowing (credit). I am curious to see how this plays out. Certainly, there is an economic boom in China. Will the Chinese people become allured with the access to easy credit? Or will they stick to the tradition of saving as a population. I predict many uneducated Chinese will fall prey to unethical lending practices as evidenced by many FoxConn employees (Apple’s manufacturer in China) committing suicide due to financial hardship. Still, others may be able to leverage credit in smart ways to expand their business operations. There is an overabundance of lending without proper due diligence, this could cause another financial crisis we just experienced in the United States in 2008. If you apply a financial crisis to the size the China, that could be a really scary situation.