Chinese Investors Demand Answers 6 Months After Zhejiang Financial Platform Collapse

Protesters are demanding repayment and questioning whether regulators ignored risks before Zhejiang’s financial asset exchange lost its license.

A woman takes a photo of the Lujiazui financial district across the Huangpu River on the Bund promenade in Shanghai, China, on March 5, 2026. Jade Gao/AFP via Getty Images

More than six months after the collapse of the Zhejiang Financial Asset Exchange Center, also known as the Zhejiang Financial Center, hundreds of creditors say they are still waiting for a concrete repayment plan, as frustration mounts over alleged regulatory failures and a lack of transparency.

On June 5, a group of creditors traveled to a provincial petitioning office in Zhangjiaba, where they called on regulators to release audit filings and explain how internal whistleblower reports were handled, according to videos circulating online. They also questioned why the platform was still allowed to issue more than 200 financial products before its license was revoked.

Videos show a heavy police presence at the petition site, with more than 100 creditors gathered. Protesters are heard chanting slogans demanding repayment and accusing officials of corruption, while security personnel stand guard at the entrance.

According to insiders who spoke to The Epoch Times on the condition that only their surnames be published due to fear of reprisal, the protesters submitted three formal demands to officials at the petitioning office. These included a request that the Zhejiang Provincial Financial Supervision Administration release the exchange’s full annual audit reports filed between 2021 and 2025.

Questions Over Regulatory Oversight

The Zhejiang Financial Center was established in 2013 with approval from the Zhejiang provincial government’s general office and was positioned as a platform for trading financial assets and related services, with registered capital of 100 million yuan (about $14 million), according to Chinese news portal Sina.

For many investors, its quasi-official status created the impression of implicit government backing.

“This was not an ordinary private company,” a creditor surnamed Yao from Hangzhou told The Epoch Times. “It operated under a local financial platform framework, and its products were issued under regulatory oversight—that government backing led people to believe it was secure.”

Yao said many affected investors are middle-aged or elderly people who invested their life savings.

“Now that things have gone wrong, officials are shirking all responsibility. Ordinary people have lost everything,” he said.

A group of creditors said that questions about regulatory oversight have become more urgent because of allegations that warning signs emerged long before the platform’s collapse.

According to claims raised by creditors in an X post on June 7, a former employee of the exchange filed a whistleblower complaint in September 2023 against the platform’s chairman and general manager.

A Hangzhou-based lawyer specializing in financial disputes, surnamed Zhu, told The Epoch Times he was approached by clients seeking representation in the case but faced pressure from local authorities.

“Lawyers are under pressure and cannot freely take the case,” he said. “If these whistleblower materials are genuine, the key question is whether regulators received, investigated, and took preventive action on them.”

“Authorities are now worried about being implicated and are discouraging legal involvement.”

In October 2024, the Zhejiang provincial financial regulator announced that the exchange’s financial asset trading license had been revoked, effectively ending its status as a licensed trading venue, according to a report by Chinese financial news outlet Shenzhen Securities Times. The statement also said that Zhejiang Province would no longer recognize financial asset trading platforms.

The same notice emphasized that the revocation did not absolve the exchange of responsibility for handling existing obligations, nor did it affect the contractual repayment obligations of underlying financing entities.

Despite this, creditors say no concrete restructuring or repayment plan has been announced.

Investors Say Accountability Is Being Avoided

Wang, another creditor, told The Epoch Times that investors were increasingly frustrated by what they perceived as official distancing from responsibility.

“We didn’t go there to cause trouble,” he said about the June 5 petition visit. “We just want an explanation. How will the assets be handled? When will we be repaid? Every time we ask, we get no clear answer.”

Wang said he personally invested more than 300,000 yuan (about $44,000), while others invested much more.

“They just say it is under investigation and tell us not to make trouble, but asking for our money back is not making trouble,” he added.

Wang also alleged that authorities had sought to discourage collective action, including by making phone calls to investors urging them not to file complaints.

In recent years, China has seen a series of failures involving local financial exchanges, wealth management products, and private investment platforms, leaving investors struggling to recover their losses. In many cases, efforts to petition authorities have been met with restrictions or police obstruction.

For creditors of the Zhejiang Financial Asset Exchange, the issue now extends beyond repayment. They are demanding disclosure of regulatory records, clarification of whistleblower allegations, and accountability for the approval and issuance of financial products prior to the platform’s license being revoked, according to their X post.

Without that, they said, the collapse is not just a corporate failure but also a test of regulatory transparency and oversight in China’s local financial system.

Wang Xin contributed to this report.