Credit has become one of the most crucial components in economic and social development. However, debtors in China who default on payments and refuse to comply with court-enforced judgments—commonly referred to as "laolai (deadbeat)"—remain widespread. The concept of defaulting judgment debtors has thus emerged. On July 16, 2013, the Supreme People's Court issued the Provisions on the Publication of Information on Defaulting Judgment Debtors, which came into effect on October 1, 2013. These provisions aim to compel defaulting judgment debtors to fulfill their obligations promptly and advance the development of the social credit system.
It is essential to distinguish between a judgment debtor and a defaulting judgment debtor:
- A judgment debtor refers to a party who refuses to comply with court judgments or arbitration awards after the statutory appeal period has expired or after a final judgment has been rendered. In civil litigation, if the defendant fails to fulfill the compensation amount specified in the judgment within the legally prescribed timeframe after the plaintiff prevails, the defendant becomes the judgment debtor subject to court enforcement.
- A defaulting judgment debtor refers to a judgment debtor who has the capacity to fulfill obligations but fails to do so, thereby violating legally effective documents. Such debtors shall be included in the defaulting judgment debtor list if they exhibit any of the following circumstances:
(i) Obstructing or resisting enforcement through forgery of evidence, violence, threats, or other means;
(ii) Evading enforcement through false litigation, false arbitration, concealment, or transfer of assets;
(iii) Violating the asset reporting system;
(iv) Breaching restriction orders on high consumption;
(v) Refusing to fulfill settlement agreements without justifiable reasons;
(vi) Other circumstances where the debtor has the capacity to fulfill obligations but refuses to do so.
To this end, CnOpenData has compiled a comprehensive list of defaulting enterprises, including essential fields such as enterprise name, date of default disclosure, filing date, operational status, and organization structure code.
Time Period
By disclosure date: 2013–2020
(Subject to updates as needed)
Field Display
Sample Data
Related Literature
- Dai, Yiyi; Zhang, Pengdong; Pan, Yue, 2019: "The More Deadbeats, the Harder to Obtain Loans? Evidence from Regional Creditworthiness and Bank Loans of Listed Companies," Journal of Financial Research 8.
Data Update Frequency
Annual updates