‘Garbage Time’ craze spooks Communist Party elite
Online meme touches a raw nerve as China struggles to shake off the fallout from economic stagnation
Pessimism is rife in China amid a floundering economy and fears that the country is heading into a recession. The signs pop up everywhere on social media before the Communist Party censors obliterate what the political elite consider “defeatist talk.”
Still, the latest meme of “Garbage Time” has touched a raw nerve and caused consternation in the halls of power, state-run media, and academia.
“‘History’s Garbage Time’? True or False?” the headline screamed from the Beijing Daily, the official Party newspaper in the capital.
“Is there any ‘garbage time’ in our history? This is a false proposition that is not worth refuting. Don’t fall into self-pity because of a few words of incitement with ulterior motives,” a 3,000-character commentary penned by Jing Pin stated.
Mood music:
- The sober symphony online captures the dire straits of an economy struggling to cope with a new geopolitical reality.
- Consumer spending has dried up to a trickle as wages stagnate.
- Dodgy data has also failed to cover up an unemployment crisis among China’s young people, aged between 16 to 24.
- Ballooning debt and “history’s wildest property boom and bust” have left economic confidence at rock bottom.
[It] attempts to create expectations that the country will fail.
Wang Wen, of the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, a Renmin University think tank
Delve deeper: “The sentiment can be summed up by a graphic, widely shared on social media – and since censored on Weibo,” The Guardian reported today.
Between the lines: “Entitled the ‘2024 misery ranking grand slam’, it tallies up the number of misery points that a person might have earned in China this year,” it said.
Why it matters: The phrase or meme “Garbage Time” has spooked President Xi Jinping’s regime, triggering an academic backlash, spearheaded by Wang Wen at the prestigious Renmin University.
Pushback: “A look at this pseudo-word reveals it is more dangerous than the ‘lying flat theory’,” Wang, of Renmin University’s Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, said.
Big picture: “It denies China’s development situation and attempts to create public expectations that the country will fail,” he wrote last week in the ultraright guancha.com.
China Factor comment: “Garbage Time” has numerous authors but reflects an outcome no longer in doubt. This will alarm Comrade Xi’s inner circle as they roll out new policies after this week’s Third Plenum.