February 4, Beijing (Reuters) – The U.S. Embassy in Beijing’s social media account is an unusual venue for many Chinese to vent their annoyance at the faltering economy and the stock market.
On Weibo, a Chinese social media site akin to X, a post made by the US embassy on Friday on safeguarding wild giraffes has garnered 130,000 comments and 15,000 reposts as of Sunday, many of which have nothing to do with conservation of wildlife.
In a repost of the article, a person commented, “Could you spare us some missiles to bomb away the Shanghai Stock Exchange?”
Another user said that the US embassy’s Weibo page “has become the Wailing Wall of Chinese retail equity investors”.
A Reuters request for comment was not immediately answered by the American embassy. Although individual posts about the market and economy can be published by Weibo users, Chinese authorities frequently censor online comments that they perceive as “negative” when they gain popularity.
Social media users can limit the channels via which they can voice their ideas by turning off or showing only a selection of comments on postings about the markets or the economy.
A number of government support measures failed to restore confidence damaged by several economic headwinds, including as a multi-year housing collapse, sluggish domestic demand, and deflationary pressures. As a result, China’s blue-chip CSI300 fell 6.3% last month, hitting five-year lows.
Following a cabinet meeting presided over by Premier Li Qiang in late January, state media stated that China would take additional “forceful” steps to support market confidence.
Since then, Chinese officials have increased their attempts to reassure investors by putting out encouraging signals that occasionally have the opposite effect. The story “The entire country is filled with optimism” appeared in the official People’s Daily on Friday.
Within moments, Chinese social media began to parody the headline.
Reposting an item about giraffe protection from the U.S. embassy on Weibo, one user wrote: “The entire giraffe community is filled with optimism.”