Chinese borrowers drown in online lending's 'bottomless pit'

Alleging lax supervision, thousands of people who lost money in P2P lending protested in Beijing's financial district last year, prompting a huge police presence to thwart the demonstration

Telecoms engineer Peng Jiezhao's taste for new smartphones and expensive sneakers seemed like a harmless, if expensive, hobby -- until he started borrowing money from Chinese online lending sites to feed it.

An initial 300-yuan ($42) loan began a downward spiral that dragged Peng, 22, into a 100,000 yuan debt borrowed from more than 20 "peer-to-peer" (P2P) lending platforms.