Chinese turn U.S. embassy post into ‘Wailing Wall’ for stock plunge By Reuters

BEIJING (Reuters) – Many Chinese language are venting their frustration on the slowing financial system and the weak inventory market in an unconventional place: the social media account of the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.

A submit on Friday on defending wild giraffes by the U.S. embassy on Weibo (NASDAQ:), a Chinese language platform just like X, has attracted 130,000 feedback and 15,000 reposts as of Sunday, lots of them unrelated to wildlife conservation.

“May you spare us some missiles to bomb away the Shanghai Inventory Alternate?” one person wrote in an repost of the article.

The Weibo account of the U.S. embassy in China “has change into the Wailing Wall of Chinese language retail fairness traders”, one other person wrote.

The U.S. embassy didn’t instantly reply to a Reuters request for remark.

Whereas Weibo customers can publish particular person posts concerning the market and the financial system, Chinese language authorities usually block what they view as “unfavorable” on-line feedback after they acquire traction.

The feedback operate on posts associated to the financial system or the markets on social media platforms will also be turned off, or solely present chosen feedback, limiting channels during which folks can specific their opinions.

China’s blue-chip CSI300 Index tumbled 6.3% final month, plumbing five-year lows, after a raft of presidency assist measures didn’t prop up confidence dented by a number of financial headwinds, together with a multi-year property hunch, tepid home consumption and deflationary pressures.

In late January, state media reported that China will take extra “forceful” measures to assist market confidence after a cupboard assembly chaired by Premier Li Qiang.

Chinese language authorities have since ramped up efforts to calm traders, sending out optimistic messages that typically produce the other impact.

On Friday, the official Individuals’s Each day printed an article with the headline: “The whole nation is full of optimism”.

The headline was quickly mocked on Chinese language social media.

A Weibo person, in an repost of the U.S. embassy’s giraffe safety article, wrote: “The whole giraffe group is full of optimism.”