Prominent Chinese financial journalist banned from social media for THIS reason

China's authoritarian regime has banned a prominent financial journalist who took a scathing view of the country's sluggish economic state, comparing it to the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The influential journalist, identified as Wu Xiaobo, had more than 4.7 million followers on his Weibo (Twitter-like platform) account. However, on Tuesday, his page displayed a message saying the account "is currently in a banned state due to violation of relevant laws and regulations".

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According to media reports, all media content posted on Wu's Weibo page since April 2022 appears to have been scrubbed out. The platform's content moderators said they had blocked three verified users for "spreading smears against the development of the securities market" and "hyping up the unemployment rate".

The platform did not give away the full usernames of the blocked accounts but said one of them had a three-character name starting with "Wu" and ending with "Bo", allegedly referring to the journalist.

In one of his regular columns in the Chinese financial market magazine Caixin, Wu made the ominous comparison, which reportedly drew the wrath of the Politburo officials.

"The huge army of the unemployed is likely to become a fuse that ignites the powder keg," wrote Wu in a May column that compared the situation with the Great Depression.

While Wu suffers an online blackout, the latest data released by the National Bureau of Statistics backs his claims.

Watch:Why are youths in China quitting high-paying jobs

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Unemployment on the rise in China

According to the data, the unemployment rate among young people aged 16 to 24 soared to a record high of 20.8 per cent in May, surpassing the previous peak observed in April.

The surge in unemployment indicates that young individuals are encountering significant challenges in finding jobs, as the labour market becomes increasingly competitive.

Due to the lack of jobs, fresh Chinese graduates are posting pictures of themselves slumped over a chair, collapsed against a wall and prostrated on the ground wearing graduation gowns as a form of rebellion. The photos are a form of silent protest and show students posing as corpses with the message "more dead than alive".

Under President Xi Jinping, the once-soaring economy of the country has taken a serious tumble, especially after the pandemic. Xi'scrackdown on the private sector has inflicted massive harm on the country’s tech and education sector, which has stressed the job market like never before. China’s private sector accounts for 80 per cent of total jobs nationwide, and it has been ravaged by China’s now-abandoned zero-Covid policy.

(With inputs from agencies)

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