China does not seem to have any kind of debt relief for homeowners whose home mortgages are 'below water'. Here in the US you can essentially hand property used to secure the loan to the lender, take the loss and be done (excepting a 7 year hit to your credit rating). In China, you can hand the property back - but you still owe the full amount of the loan. China's in the middle of a real estate crash, but it's not snowballing like the real estate bubble did in the West - because they've converted corporate and government mismanagement into personal misery.