Hong Kong CNN —
Tens of thousands of people in China are flocking to the social media account of the US Embassy in Beijing to vent their anger and frustration with the continuing meltdown in the country’s stock market.
On Monday, mainland Chinese markets slumped again after their worst weeks in years. The Shanghai Composite Index briefly fell more than 3%, hitting its lowest level in five years. It had pared some losses by noon, but is still down 1.8%. Last week, the index fell 6.2%, its biggest weekly loss since October 2018.
The Shenzhen Component Index also tumbled 2.3% in morning trade, following a 8.1% slide last week. More than 1,700 stocks on the Shanghai and Shenzhen markets slumped more than 10% Monday.
Under a Friday post by the US Embassy’s Weibo account about protecting wild giraffes, many Chinese people complained about the stock market rout and the challenging economy.
“The US government, please help Chinese stock investors,” a user said in a repost of the animal protection article.
“I love America! Please help Chinese people,” another user said.
Many posts later appeared to be scrubbed by censors, as the authorities intensify their censorship of criticism about China’s stalled economy.
Investors seemed to have shrugged off Chinese regulators’ latest pledge to bolster the stock market. On Sunday, the China Securities Regulatory Commission vowed to prevent “abnormal fluctuations” in the stock market and stabilize confidence. But it did not offer any details about how it would do so.
Altogether, about $6 trillion in market value has been wiped out from the Chinese and Hong Kong stock markets over the past three years, according to a CNN calculation based on data from the Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hong Kong exchanges.
A record downturn in its dominant real estate market, high youth unemployment, deflation and a rapidly falling birthrate are just some of the issues ailing the world’s second-largest economy.
