The Chinese government's campaign against critics of its economy

BarcelonaChina has a new goal: criticizing its government's economic policy. reveals it investigating in The New York Timesin which the show explains how the country's top intelligence agency issued a warning last month about Chinese critics of the economy, whom it sees as a growing threat to national security.

This warning to sailors is directed at the general public – the Ministry of Security has asked the Chinese not to be influenced by those who seek to discredit their economy with “false narratives” and is promoting economic propaganda – but Beijing above all has experts in the spotlight. . According to the American newspaper, the Chinese executive imposed censorship and attempted to intimidate distinguished economists, financial analysts, investment banks and influencers on social media because of their critical assessments of the economy and government policy. In fact, research shows that newspaper articles about people with economic problems in China or documentaries about the low standard of living of migrant workers are deleted.

Just last month, China's GDP growth during 2023 was announced: the Asian giant managed to advance by 5.2%, far from its historical growth and without overcoming many of the problems that threaten it, such as falling domestic consumption, and long-term. A crisis in the real estate sector and a paralyzed private sector. In addition, a new chapter in the travails of real estate developer Evergrande opened on Monday after a Hong Kong court ordered its liquidation.

Journalists from The New York Times They also point out that the Chinese government is particularly concerned about consulting firms with foreign connections, which play an important role in attracting investment. Rotary notes that these entities have witnessed inspections and arrests, but these attempts to slow the release of financial information are more concerning to offshore companies.

Network censorship

Part of this censorship focuses on some discourse about the Chinese economy also on social media. The article notes that since June, on the Weibo platform — similar to X, the old Twitter — dozens of accounts have been restricted for speaking poorly about the executive's policies, because they were deemed to “discredit” or “discredit” his efforts to strengthen the country. In November, Weibo actually warned users against being “harmfully pessimistic” or spreading negative sentiment.

The dean of Beijing University of Political Science and Law, Liu Jipeng, has been banned from posting or adding new followers on the social networks Douyin and Weibo – where he has more than half a million followers – after he said in an interview that it was not a good time to invest money in stocks. The academic also publicly said that it is difficult for citizens to invest safely due to the presence of many unethical institutions.