The boomerang effect of economic censorship in Beijing

Last week, the Chinese government unveiled a massive stimulus package aimed at lifting the country’s economy out of a prolonged slump. The Chinese stock market responded to the planned measures, including interest rate cuts, smaller mortgage down payments and more liquidity for banks, with the biggest jump in a single week since 2008. In the wave of global news stories and opinion polls, pieces on Beijing’s bold move, including there are many sowing doubt In terms of long-term effectiveness, the lack of critical analysis from Chinese economists was glaring.

This is an unfortunate outcome of the Chinese government’s increasingly frantic efforts to crack down on economic dissidents. While censorship on economic issues is hardly new, the level of repression has taken a darker turn recently, sending chills down the spine of anyone in the country who analyzes economics as part of their profession.

The most extreme example is the reported disappearance of Zhu Hengpeng, one of China’s most prominent and well-connected economists. Zhu is director of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a leading think tank that reports directly to the Cabinet. According to the Wall Street Journal, he is believed to have acted violently disappeared in April after he made disparaging comments about the economy in a private chat group on Chinese social media platform WeChat. The details of what Zhu said are unclear, but some reports indicate that he had “inappropriately discussed central policies” and referred to the “mortality” of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping.

Over the past year, a slew of China’s most influential analysts have been exposed to social media limits That limited their ability to comment on the economy. Some were not allowed to post new posts or gain new followers. One of the country’s best-known propagandists, Hu Xijin, former editor-in-chief of the nationalist tabloid Global Times, mysteriously passed away quiet after voluntarily offering an unorthodox interpretation of the central government’s guiding economic policy document. Authorities have also regularly harassed economists and commentators, warning them not to speak ill of the economy. Reportedly, there were even private online conferences cut off when participants expressed pessimistic views about China’s growth trajectory.

While economic information is perceived as less politically sensitive than discussions about democracy or human rights in China, research by Freedom House shows shows that the CCP has repeatedly increased restrictions over the past decade when the economy appears to be in trouble. This year, the crackdown has increasingly focused on content that addresses income inequality, youth employment and poverty – in other words, deep-rooted problems that affect large parts of the population and could undermine a key pillar of the CCP’s political legitimacy.

It’s not just economic news and analysis that’s being censored. Chinese citizens are also prohibited from expressing their feelings about the economy. In February, WeChat removed a popular article that reported on survey results from the Guangzhou-based Canton Public Opinion Research Center, which showed a prevailing sense of pessimism about the country’s economic well-being.

Around the same time, the CCP’s flagship People’s Daily published a report article titled ‘The whole country is filled with optimism’, in an attempt to project positivity online. Netizens immediately flooded social media platform Weibo with posts ridiculing the article. Within hours, the hashtag used to discuss the piece was removed from public view.

Such censorship obviously violates Chinese citizens’ rights to information and expression, but it also poses risks to the Chinese government itself. Authorities need good data and analysis to implement sound economic policies. Critical perspectives force policymakers to reexamine their assumptions and demonstrate their work. Suppressing unwelcome news and feigning optimism creates an environment where mistakes go uncorrected and mistakes are exacerbated. It could also encourage officials within the system to falsify data for the sake of their own careers – already a widespread practice. problem – and further cloud the situation.

There is at least one additional risk to the regimen. Unlike information about the CCP’s human rights abuses against minority groups or political rivalry within the party leadership, information about the economy is a daily concern for almost everyone in China. Tight censorship on this topic could breed mass distrust in approved sources and push more internet users to bypass the CCP’s draconian internet censorship despite the possibility of punishment, in search of more objective news and analysis on China’s economic situation.

In other words, censorship of the economy could ultimately backfire on censorship in general, exposing the regime to an even greater crisis of legitimacy.