China’s property crisis is entering its sixth year with no clear end in sight after Hui Ka Yan, founder of China Evergrande Group and once Asia’s richest person, was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court on Aug. 20. The court ordered the confiscation of Hui’s personal property, stripped him of political rights for life and imposed fines of 8.82 billion yuan on Evergrande Group and 7 billion yuan on its subsidiary Hengda Real Estate. Hui pleaded guilty to eight charges in April 2026, including financial fraud, illegal fundraising and bribery, after Evergrande was found to have inflated assets and concealed liabilities between 2016 and 2021. The company’s 2021 default on about $300 billion in liabilities helped trigger China’s prolonged property downturn. Evergrande entered liquidation in 2024 and was delisted from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, while Country Garden defaulted in 2023 and China Vanke has sought to extend some bond repayments. Millions of homes remain unfinished, prices and construction have weakened and household confidence has suffered. The slowdown has also pushed China toward greater reliance on exports, contributing to trade tensions with the European Union and the United States and concerns over a China Shock 2.0. Analysts remain divided between expectations of a prolonged correction and views that the worst may have passed.