The 10-year-old "aged bad debt" was resolved within 50 days.

This article is reproduced from: Zhejiang Rule of Law Daily

“Penetrating” enforcement breaks the deadlock in the financial “bone case”

A 10-year-old “long-dormant bad debt” settled in 50 days

Reporter: Yao Qingpei Shen Yuan

Chief reporter of this paper: Xu Mei

In this report: “The full 1.65 million yuan in outstanding debt has been paid in—after ten years of weight on my chest, the stone has finally landed!” On the other end of the phone, the applicant for enforcement, Xu, a manager at a certain bank, was extremely excited. Behind this was Quzhou Zhizao New City People’s Court, which broke through regional barriers by using a “penetrating” enforcement model, successfully activating a financial backlog that had been sleeping for 10 years.

Time goes back to 2015. A certain material company in Zhejiang, due to difficulties in capital turnover, failed to fulfill its repayment obligation for a loan of more than 10 million yuan; the bank applied for compulsory enforcement. Zhou and Zhi, as joint-liability guarantors, were also listed as persons subject to enforcement. The court disposed of the property in their names in accordance with law, but nearly 1.65 million yuan in case funds still could not be enforced. At the time, because there was no other enforceable property available, the case could only be concluded procedurally. In doing so, it was left untouched for 10 years.

The turning point came at the end of 2025, as the centralized clearance campaign for “cases concluded with no property to execute” (zhongdi ben) continued to advance. This old case was “revived” and reassigned to the Zhizao New City Court for enforcement. Enforcer Feng Lixiu, who took the case, went through the case file page by page, fully revisiting the case developments over the past decade, and leaving no minor clue unexamined.

The usual investigation still yielded no progress. Feng Lixiu then immediately carried out a “penetrating” investigation, conducting a comprehensive search of property leads of the persons subject to enforcement through channels such as tax information exchanges, real estate registration, and company information queries. Meanwhile, the enforcement team also carried out on-site verification offline. After traveling to the registered address of the material company, it was found that its original factory premises no longer existed, and enforcement once again fell into a stalemate.

After a week of continuous online and offline tracking with no results, Feng Lixiu made a decisive adjustment to the investigation direction, digging deeper into the related relationships behind the material company. By sorting out key information such as the company’s business dealings and capital inflows and outflows over the past decade, an important lead gradually came to light. The enforcement officers then successfully identified Huang, the company’s actual controller.

The enforcement officers contacted Huang at the first opportunity. After multiple rounds of communication and summons for discussion, it was ascertained that over the past 10 years, the material company had transferred to operate and develop in another province. It is currently in a critical period for business. The company also wanted to extricate itself from legal disputes and start anew with lighter burdens. However, due to tight cash flow and the overlay of multiple debts, it did not have the capacity to make full payments in the short term.

After establishing this key fact, the enforcement officers immediately launched a “back-to-back” mediation effort. On one hand, they truthfully informed the bank of the company’s current operating difficulties and recommended setting a one-month repayment buffer period for the enterprise. On the other hand, they explained to the material company and its actual controller the legal consequences of refusing to comply with an effective legal document, urging them to promptly formulate a feasible repayment plan.

After multiple rounds of communication and negotiation, the parties ultimately reached an agreement. Within the repayment period, the material company made a one-time payment of 1.65 million yuan in outstanding debt. After that, within the buffer period, the material company made a one-time full settlement of the 1.65 million yuan owed. This “long-dormant bad debt” that had been put aside for 10 years was fully enforced in just 50 days, successfully untangling a decade-long enforcement deadlock: the bank recovered the money owed smoothly, guarantors Zhou and Zhi were able to escape long-running debt disputes, and the material company also shed the heavy burden of debt, resuming normal operations with lighter footing.

The case-handling effectiveness of “one case resolves multiple parties’ wins” stems from the determination of Quzhou Zhizao New City Court to tackle the “bone case.” The head of the enforcement division, Xu Haofeng, explained: “Through a comprehensive, deeply dug-into ‘penetrating’ enforcement work model, we fully check leads and carefully retrieve key information such as commercial and tax records, uncovering the actual controller hidden behind the scenes. At the same time, by using the nationwide networked enforcement information inquiry and control system and big data platforms, we rely on technological means to ascertain various property information of the persons subject to enforcement. We join forces with multiple parties such as the police and community grid workers to coordinate and boost efforts, remove obstacles throughout the enforcement process, and in enforcement we both do communication and persuasion properly and, according to law, take compulsory measures. With both soft and hard approaches combined, and with firmness and flexibility, we effectively deter persons subject to enforcement and genuinely solve the difficulties in enforcement.”