China is seeking to boost public economic confidence by stifling negative commentary about the financial market and other sectors.
It comes as President Xi is facing challenging economic headwinds with China’s ministry of state security saying there was a need to "sing the bright theory of China’s economy".
An account on Chinese microblogging website Weibo called Weibo Finance, which has more than 1.5 million followers, issued an instruction against posting any comments "that bad-mouth the economy". The post has now been deleted.
Financial news site Bloomberg reported that several other finance influencers had been told by Weibo to “avoid crossing red lines” and to post less about the economy. Weibo did not reply to Bloomberg's request for comment.
China panics over economic downturn as warning issued to silence negative analysis
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In a WeChat post, China’s ministry of state security said: "Various cliches intended to denigrate China’s economy continue to appear.
"Their essence is to use false narratives to construct a ‘discourse trap’ and ‘cognitive trap’ of China’s decline, in order to cast doubt on the system and path of socialism with Chinese characteristics."
It comes as there is a growing range of topics that are seen as becoming "increasingly sensitive" in China’s economy.
This includes record high youth unemployment figures (the government stopped publishing this data in August), deflation, the struggling property sector and capital flight.
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China is currently facing challenging economic headwinds
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Back in June, three finance commentators, one of whom had 4.7 million Weibo followers, were blocked by the platform as a punishment for "hyping up the unemployment rate, spreading negative information … [and] smearing the development of the securities market".
Chief economist for Asia Pacific at investment bank Natixis said: "Economic topics used to be widely discussed but there is an increasing number of topics that are becoming problematic."
Chief economist at Hang Seng Bank Dan Wang said the "the number one sensitive issue now" was foreign investment, because of its links to cross-border capital flows.
He added: "Openly, [the government] welcomes foreign investors, but the current situation is not the best for foreigners to stay. There’s a gap between what the government says and what is actually going on in the market."
It comes as there is also pressure on economists in Hong Kong to be optimistic about the mainland economy.
However, analysts say this is a long-term trend and one that comes from a general atmosphere of deference to Beijing rather than specific instructions.
Wang added: "We need to conform to the official party line.
"We need to focus on the positive side of the economy, [but] it’s harder to find those bright spots."
