While China Evergrande Group’s founder Xu Jiayin languishes under state detention, his former second-in-command, Xia Haijun, is fighting a different kind of battle from the manicured suburbs of California. Xia, the former CEO and the man widely credited with engineering the property giant’s debt-fueled rise, has petitioned a Hong Kong court to increase his monthly living allowance. Citing the high cost of living in Irvine’s elite enclaves, Xia claims that his current court-ordered cap of 50,000 Hong Kong dollars per month is insufficient to maintain his family’s lifestyle.
The request has sparked outrage among the millions of Chinese homeowners and creditors left in the wake of Evergrande’s $300 billion collapse. Xia’s legal filing argues that his expenses, including the tuition for his son’s private schooling—which can exceed $200,000 annually—and the maintenance of three luxury properties and four high-end vehicles, necessitate a hike to HK$335,000. This attempt to 'cry poverty' while residing in a global hub for the ultra-wealthy highlights the stark divide between the architects of China's property bubble and its victims.
Xia’s role in Evergrande was foundational. Since joining in 2007, he served as the strategic brain behind the 'three highs' model—high leverage, high turnover, and high growth—that allowed Evergrande to become the world’s most indebted developer. For his efforts, Xia was dubbed the 'Wage King' of Hong Kong’s capital markets, commanding annual salaries that peaked at 270 million yuan, dwarfing the compensation of his peers at more conservative firms like Vanke or Country Garden.
Unlike many of his colleagues who were caught in the subsequent regulatory crackdown, Xia appears to have spent a decade preparing his exit strategy. As early as 2011, he secured Canadian citizenship and began funneling wealth into U.S. real estate under his wife’s name. In the months leading up to Evergrande’s formal default in late 2021, Xia resigned and went quiet, but not before secretly divesting HK$116 million in shares and clearing $128 million in corporate bonds, transactions that bypassed mandatory disclosure protocols.
In June 2024, the Hong Kong High Court issued a global freezing order on Xia’s assets, valued at approximately HK$60 billion. This includes bank accounts, offshore trusts, and various properties. However, the legal maneuver to increase his living allowance suggests a calculated testing of judicial boundaries. For international regulators, the case represents the extreme difficulty of cross-border asset recovery when dealing with sophisticated actors who have utilized global financial systems to insulate their personal fortunes from corporate failure.