Photo: Getty

A financial meltdown in China is the currently the leading contender for “Next global financial crisis that will definitely screw you somehow, even though you don’t have that much money.” We now know that GEORGE SOROS is betting on China’s demise too.

Soros is famous for making a billion bucks betting against the British pound, so uh.. he likes to bet against things, for money. (Technical finance term). He’s a multi-billionaire, one of the originators of the hedge fund industry, and a heavy political donor. He’s also semi-retired, so any investment moves he makes draw a great deal of scrutiny. And the Wall Street Journal reports that he’s jumped back into the trading game specifically to bet on an impending global economic decline. He’s piling into gold! He’s selling off stocks! And, most of all, he’s betting on a breakdown in China:

“China continues to suffer from capital flight and has been depleting its foreign currency reserves while other Asian countries have been accumulating foreign currency,” Mr. Soros said. “China is facing internal conflict within its political leadership, and over the coming year this will complicate its ability to deal with financial issues.”

Mr. Soros worries that new troubles will arise in China partly because he said the nation doesn’t seem willing to embrace a transparent political system that he contends is necessary to enact lasting economic overhauls.

It would be cool for the Chinese government to immediately become fair and transparent and well-run to prevent an economic disaster just to show these billionaires what’s what, and also to prevent an economic disaster.