State banks backed Evergrande’s with cheap credit and govt guarantees.

Local officials were promoted for hitting GDP growth targets - see above how they put localities deep in debt by speculating on real estate.

The CCP gave households social credit for moving to cities and buying real estate.

The CCP is not protecting consumers in the aftermath. They won’t let consumers out of mortgages for unfinished condos because they don’t want the crisis to worsen - effectively bailing out developers.

Not sure where you came up with the idea that China is acting in the interest of its citizens rather than the state. That’s not a fundamental characteristic of an autocratic socialist state.

What happened was these companies went into massive debt building buildings based on the belief that real estate prices would increase forever infinitely.

The Chinese govt popped the bubble.

These real estate companies went bankrupt, many of them took payments from retail for apartments that weren't built.

They arrested the CEO's and upper management, siezed and sold their assets.

But the people did get bailed out by the government, all the little folk who bought apartments were refunded or had the construction project finished by the government.