As if the Evergrande crisis wasn’t enough to put China’s financial system to the test, Chinese protesters took to the streets once more, in what appears to be a rare occurrence for China. This time, its citizens are protesting against the freezing of their assets by four rural banks in Henan Province, where most of them are located. In this post, we will examine the impact of the event and determine if China bank stocks, particularly the big four, are still safe to hold. China’s Banking Scandal The protest began due to a scandal involving the disappearance of 40 billion yuan (S$8 billion) in deposits from four rural banks, an incident that local authorities blamed on a criminal group falsifying records and siphoning off monies. Depositors of these banks subsequently could not withdraw their funds as the banks froze their assets. Ultimately, this culminated into the protest we now see as depositors demand for their money....