China Threatens Its Economists And Analysts To Only Write Bullish Reports, Or Else
By Tyler Durden
When it comes to dealing with the mass media and its impact on public confidence, China has a long and illustrious history of not beating around the bush. Last summer around the time its stock market bubble started to crack, Beijing banned the use of such terms as “equity disaster” and “rescue the market.” Then earlier this year, China’s president Xi Jingping visited the country’s three big state news organizations, Xinhua, the People’s Daily and China Central Television, to lecture them on the need to toe the party line, “tell China’s stories well” and enhance the nation’s influence in the world.
After all, hinting that not all is as it appears in official propaganda soundbites would merely instill further lack of confidence in the economy and accelerate the stealthy capital outflows from the country (while making the Vancouver real estate market even more entertaining).
Now, according to the WSJ, Chinese authorities have set their sights on a new set of targets: “economists, analysts and business reporters with gloomy views on China’s economy.”
While in the US and the rest of the free world, anyone who holds a less than bullish view of things is simply marginalized as a conspiracy theorist, ridiculed by establishment economists and pundits, is the recipient of mainstream media hit pieces, or denigrated by the president as “peddling fiction”, China has decided to take a more blunt approach: “securities regulators, media censors and other government officials have issued verbal warnings to commentators whose public remarks on the economy are out of step with the government’s upbeat statements.”
Take the example of Lin Caiyi, chief economist at Guotai Junan Securities who has been outspoken about rising corporate debt and a glut of housing and the weakening Chinese currency. According to the WSJ, she received a warning in recent weeks, her second, from her state-owned firm’s compliance department, which instructed her to avoid making “overly bearish” remarks about the economy, particularly the currency.
For now it is just verbal warnings although if past is prologue we expect China will soon incarcerate at least a few of its “rogue” bearish economists to send a very clear signal that any lack of upbeat commentary will not be tolerated.
Meanwhile, China’s economy is doing so well, that as a result of “pressure” by financial regulators bent on stabilizing the market, stock analysts at brokerage firms are becoming wary of issuing critical reports on listed companies. At least one Chinese think tank was told by propaganda officials not to cast doubt on a planned government program to help state companies reduce debt.
What China really wants is to make sure that every financial and economic expert is on the same page and reinforcing the same message as that uttered by the country’s political leaders.
The WSJ caveats that while evidence of the clampdown is anecdotal, it appears widespread. Government departments didn’t respond to requests for comment or declined to. Commentary about the economy and reporting on business, unlike on politics or many social policies, …read more
Source: China Threatens Its Economists And Analysts To Only Write Bullish Reports, Or Else
