China’s Housing Crash Could Set Back Millions of Promising Careers

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Fresh out of school after studying chemistry, she joined one of China’s biggest property companies in 2016, as the country’s real estate market was taking off. She worked until 11 p.m. every day and was transferred to a bigger city after being designated a “sales champion." She pampered herself in her limited time off by regularly buying $550 spa packages. Money was so plentiful that she didn’t have to think about it much. “The bank account was just a series of numbers," Zhang says. Everybody wanted what Zhang and her colleagues were selling. Owning property was so essential it was...