Last year, the creditors of the world’s most-indebted real estate developer, Evergrande, gathered for a signing ceremony in Beijing where they agreed not to force the company to pay them their debt. A photo from the event shows Zhang Jindong, a Chinese tycoon and then-chairman of Nanjing-based retail giant Suning, standing next to his longtime friend, Evergrande’s chairman Xu Jiayin, and clapping unenthusiastically. That day, Zhang helped his friend avoid a near-term cash crunch by waiving his right to collect a nearly $3 billion payment Evergrande owed to Suning. The timing of the decision couldn’t be worse — at the end of the third quarter last year Suning’s own debt was more than $6.6 billion. Suning Holding Group and its operating company, Suning.com, have local and offshore bonds worth $4.3 billion maturing soon, with the largest payment approaching in December. Personal favors to Xu Jiayin notwithstanding, Suning seems to be making moves to get ahead of its debt.