China’s internet censors are going after “chaotic” online financial information that claims to be “expert guidance,” the country’s powerful State Internet Information Office has said.
The moves come after censors took down a speech that went viral from economist Dong Shanwen, who warned that youth unemployment was tanking the economy, and that official growth figures had hugely underestimated the problem.
“The ... Office has kept up a high-pressure crackdown on chaotic online financial information, and has worked with relevant departments to deal with a number of accounts engaged in illegal stock recommendations, illegal financial intermediaries and other activities on platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou, Weibo, and WeChat,” state news agency Xinhua reported on Thursday.
The authorities are also going after “illegal information that diverts and attracts traffic,” as well as unlicensed financial service providers and “get rich quick” investment schemes, it said.
China’s financial markets have had a roller-coaster ride in recent months amid speculation over a long-awaited government stimulus package for the country’s flagging economy.
‘Turning off the lights’
Instead of embarking on promising careers and pouring their disposable income into the economy, young people in today’s China are tightening their belts and “turning off the lights and eating noodles,” Gao Shanwen, chief economist at SDIC Securities, told an investor conference in Shenzhen earlier this month.
“Turning off the lights and eating noodles” is a catchphrase typically used to describe someone who is down on their luck after failed investments in the stock market, according to Baidupedia.
Gao’s personal financial commentary account on WeChat was later deleted, according to social media reports on Dec. 5.
Fellow economist Fu Peng, who recently commented that China’s middle class is in decline and that the government’s economic rescue measures won’t be as effective as they were in 2008, has also had his WeChat account restricted.
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Their comments were a direct contradiction of claims by the ruling Chinese Communist Party under Xi Jinping that consumption, particularly by young people, would be the driving force behind post-lockdown economic growth.
Livestreamer Gongzi Shen, who broadcast Fu Peng’s comments on his channel, said the silencing of the two economists suggests that the authorities are extremely nervous about allowing bad economic news to spread online.
“I’ve seen a lot of economists get silenced, one by one,” he said. “This shows that [the government] has no intention of carrying out deeper reforms.”
“They know that a lot of knowledgeable people have been saying these things, which are very pertinent, but even though they know that these opinions make a lot of sense ... they sacrifice the private sector and the whole of society to cling onto supreme power,” he said.
“The attack on these economists and liberal intellectuals is also to some extent an attack on the economic technocrats [in the party and government],” he said.
Current affairs commentator Wang Jian said the banning of Fu and Gao shows that their opinions had hit the nail on the head.
“What Gao Shanwen said will have made the Chinese Communist Party more angry, because he explained it very clearly and his evidence is solid,” Wang said. “China’s economy has been overestimated by 3 percentage points a year for the past three years, which is a slap in the face for the National Bureau of Statistics.”
“They’re angry not because he’s talking nonsense ... but because nothing he said was nonsense,” he said.
“Gao Shanwen is basically ... gone now; nobody can find him [online].”
Current affairs commentator Ma Ju said the government continues to insist that only good news about the economy is allowed to circulate online.
“They believe that the economy will improve as long as everyone believes it’s getting better,” Ma told RFA Mandarin in a recent interview.
Yet the criticism of the government’s economic figures was irrefutable, he said.
“They know they can’t make up any more lies, so what do they do? They get rid of the people who identified the problem,” Ma said. “They don’t allow them to speak or publish about it.”
“They get rid of anyone who dares to be pessimistic, as opposed to singing the praises of China’s economy.”
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.