Many Chinese are venting their frustration at China’s slowing economy and weak stock markets in an unconventional place: the social media account of the US embassy in Beijing.
A post on Friday on protecting wild giraffes by the US embassy on Weibo (微博), a Chinese platform similar to X, has attracted 130,000 comments and 15,000 reposts as of yesterday, many of them unrelated to wildlife conservation.
“Could you spare us some missiles to bomb away the Shanghai Stock Exchange?” one user wrote in a repost of the article.
Photo: AFP
The Weibo account of the US embassy in China “has become the Wailing Wall of Chinese retail equity investors,” another user wrote.
The US embassy did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
While Weibo users can publish individual posts about the market and the economy, Chinese authorities regularly block what they view as “negative” online comments when they gain traction.
The commenting function on posts related to the economy or the markets on social media platforms can also be turned off or only show selected comments, restricting channels in which people can express their opinions.
China’s blue-chip CSI300 Index tumbled 6.3 percent last month, plumbing five-year lows after a raft of government support measures failed to prop up confidence dented by multiple economic headwinds, including a multi-year property slump, tepid domestic consumption and deflationary pressures.
Late last month, Chinese state media reported that China would take more “forceful” measures to support market confidence following a Cabinet meeting chaired by Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強).
Chinese authorities have since ramped up efforts to calm investors, sending out positive messages that sometimes produce the opposite effect.
On Friday, the official People’s Daily published an article with the headline: “The entire country is filled with optimism.”
The headline was soon mocked on Chinese social media.
A Weibo user, in a repost of the US embassy’s giraffe protection article, wrote: “The entire giraffe community is filled with optimism.”
Taichung reported the steepest fall in completed home prices among the six special municipalities in the first quarter of this year, data compiled by Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) showed yesterday. From January through last month, the average transaction price for completed homes in Taichung fell 8 percent from a year earlier to NT$299,000 (US$9,483) per ping (3.3m²), said Taiwan Realty, which compiled the data based on the government’s price registration platform. The decline could be attributed to many home buyers choosing relatively affordable used homes to live in themselves, instead of newly built homes in the city’s prime property market, Taiwan Realty
The government yesterday approved applications by Alphabet Inc’s Google to invest NT$27.08 billion (US$859.98 million) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. The Department of Investment Review approved two investments proposed by Google, with much of the funds to be used for data processing and electronic information supply services, as well as inventory procurement businesses in the semiconductor field, the ministry said. It marks the second consecutive year that Google has applied to increase its investment in Taiwan. Google plans to infuse NT$25.34 billion into Charter Investments Ltd (特許投資顧問) through its Singapore-based subsidiary Fructan Holdings Singapore Pte Ltd, and
Micron Technology Inc is a driving force pushing the US Congress to pass legislation that would put new export restrictions on equipment its Chinese competitors use to make their chips, according to people familiar with the matter. A US House of Representatives panel yesterday was to vote on the “MATCH Act,” a bill designed to close gaps in restrictions on chipmaking equipment. It would also pressure foreign companies that sell equipment to Chinese chipmaking facilities to align with export curbs on US companies like Lam Research Corp and Applied Materials Inc. The bill targets facilities operated by China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies Inc
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings’ planned acquisition of Foodpanda’s Taiwan operations has yet to enter the formal review stage, as regulators await supplementary documents, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said yesterday. Acting FTC Chairman Chen Chih-min (陳志民) told the legislature’s Economics Committee that although Grab submitted its application on March 27, the case has not been officially accepted because required materials remain incomplete. Once the filing is finalized, the FTC would launch a formal probe into the deal, focusing on issues such as cross-shareholding and potential restrictions on market competition, Chen told lawmakers. Grab last month announced that it would acquire
RSS