China Locks Foreign Investors Out Of Another Bad-Debt Cleanup

HONG KONG: Chinese banks have a colossal mess of bad debts to clean up for the second time in as many decades, but they are unlikely to call in the financial world's most efficient mop and broom.

Foreign investors that specialise in buying up distressed debt are queuing outside the industry's door, but bankers say China's reluctance to pay the price of a privately funded clean-up means that door probably won't open -- to the cost of Chinese tax-payers and, ultimately perhaps, the wider economy.