China seeks to boost overall economic confidence by stifling negative comments about the financial market and other sectors.
It comes as President Xi faces difficult economic headwinds, with China’s Ministry of State Security saying there is a need to “sing the Sunshine Theory of the Chinese economy”.
An account on Chinese microblogging site Weibo called Weibo Finance, which has more than 1.5 million followers, has issued instructions not to post any comments that “harm the economy.” This post has now been deleted.
Financial news website Bloomberg reported that several other financial influencers had been asked by Weibo to “avoid crossing red lines” and post little about the economy. Weibo did not respond to Bloomberg’s request for comment.
China panics over economic downturn with warning issued to silence negative analysis
GT
In a post on WeChat, China’s Ministry of State Security said: “Many clichés aimed at discrediting the Chinese economy continue to appear.
“Their essence is to use false narratives to build a ‘discourse trap’ and a ‘cognitive trap’ of China’s decline, in order to cast doubt on the system and path of socialism with Chinese characteristics.”
This comes against a backdrop of a growing range of topics seen as becoming “increasingly sensitive” in the Chinese economy.
This includes high youth unemployment figures (the government stopped publishing this data in August), deflation, a faltering real estate sector, and capital flight.
The latest developments:
China is currently facing difficult economic headwinds
Reuters
Last June, three financial commentators, one of whom has 4.7 million followers on Weibo, were banned by the platform as punishment for “inflating the unemployment rate, spreading negative information… [and] Distortion of stock market development.”
“Economic topics have been widely discussed but there are an increasing number of topics that are becoming problematic,” said chief economist for Asia Pacific at investment bank Natixis.
Dan Wang, chief economist at Hang Seng Bank, said the “number one sensitive issue now” is foreign investment, because of its links to cross-border capital flows.
He added: “Publicly… [the government] It welcomes foreign investors, but the current situation is not the best for foreigners to stay. “There is a gap between what the government says and what actually happens in the market.”
This comes as there is also pressure on economists in Hong Kong to be optimistic about the mainland’s economy.
However, analysts say this is a long-term trend and comes from a general atmosphere of respect for Beijing rather than specific instructions.
Wang added: “We need to adhere to the official party line.
“We need to focus on the positive side of the economy, [but] “It’s hard to find those bright spots.”