Weibo, China's leading microblogging platform, is urging its users not to talk badly about the economy, account holders said.
The seemingly automated messages, first reported by Bloomberg on Dec. 15, arrived in the inboxes of internet users commenting on the state of China's economy, which has been in flux since the country's post-pandemic recovery began a year ago.
It was unclear whether the soft censorship had led to any shadow bans or outright suspensions of Weibo accounts, but it highlighted growing concern about whether China was ever likely to again experience the explosive growth it had enjoyed for decades and which it ultimately drove has become the second largest economy in the world in 2010.
Weibo is often compared with its Western counterparts such as Facebook or… because of its influential role in shaping China's social media landscape
On the site and elsewhere this month, expressive users shared screenshots of their inboxes and Weibo notices that specifically warned them not to “badmouth the economy” and flagged possible risks to their accounts.
Bloomberg said a recipient of the memo verified the existence of the new Direct with the social media company, which did not immediately respond to Newsweek's written request for comment before publication.
In another case, a prominent blogger active in China's stock markets posted a note warning commentators not to “cross the red line,” with particular emphasis on economic or financial topics.
The move by national-level censors behind Weibo and other popular social media apps was a sign of the Chinese government's sensitivity to public discourse about the country's economic health, which has been hit by a crisis in the real estate market.
Key indicators such as domestic consumption and investor confidence remained a concern for the World Bank, which described China's economy as “fragile” in a report last week.
“The outlook is subject to significant downside risks,” the World Bank said. “The ongoing real estate downturn has resulted in a sharp and sustained decline in real estate investment, which has fallen by 18 percent overall over the past two years.”
According to the World Bank, China's GDP growth will continue to slow to 4.5 and 4.3 percent in 2024 and 2025.
China's own government institutions have also sent distress signals. The National Bureau of Statistics said last Friday that real estate investment fell to 9.4 percent, indicating that the real estate sector continues to be a major drag on the Chinese economy.
China's two major real estate developers, Evergrande and Country Garden, both defaulted on their debt repayments earlier this year.
Longtime China watchers have speculated that Beijing's warmer tone toward Washington – its main geostrategic rival – may also be related to its financial difficulties at home and the Chinese leadership's desire for more stable and predictable trade relations.
This aerial photo taken on Oct. 25, 2023 shows the Evergrande logo on residential buildings in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu province. Chinese microblogging platform Weibo this month began warning users against badmouthing the economy.
China OUT/AFP via Getty
In parallel with Weibo's warnings, China's Ministry of State Security issued an alert warning users against spreading “false narratives” about the economy.
“Their essence is to use various false narratives to construct a 'discourse trap' and a 'cognitive trap' about 'China's decline' to further raise doubts about the system and path of socialism with Chinese characteristics,” the ministry said a Dec. 15 social media post on WeChat, China's all-rounder app.
China's state media has also published official lines seeking to defend itself against negative statements about the economic situation. An official article from Xinhua News Agency was headlined: “China's economic resilience effectively refutes pessimistic views.”
A related Weibo hashtag saying, “Those who speak badly about the Chinese economy are bound to be disappointed” was viewed over 140 million times between December 14 and 18.
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Newsweek strives to challenge conventional wisdom and find connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek strives to challenge conventional wisdom and find connections in the search for common ground.
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