Once a China Coal Boomtown, Hegang Now Can’t Afford to Hire

A city in China’s rust-belt northeast canceled a government recruitment plan as it struggles to fill a hole in its coffers amid mounting debts and falling revenues from its once-dominant coal mining industry and slumping property sales, revealing yet another tip of the iceberg of debt plaguing regions across the country.

Hegang, a city in Heilongjiang province that sits on the border with Russia, last Thursday announced it had canceled a plan for hiring lower-level government workers because a fiscal restructuring plan has brought “significant changes to the city’s financial condition,” according to a statement posted on its website.