China restricts economist Ren Zeping’s account — South China Morning Post

China has restricted the WeChat account of prominent economist Ren Zeping: users cannot follow the page, and publications on it have been suspended. This was reported by South China Morning Post.

Publications suspended for 15 days

A representative of Ren Zeping’s team said that due to technical adjustments on the platform, some of the channel’s materials did not meet the requirements of the new rules. According to the representative, this resulted in a 15-day suspension of publications, and the team is working on the necessary changes.

The reason for restrictions on this particular account was not specified. As recently as Friday, posts were published on the page, including an assessment that China’s stock market had effectively reached its bottom and begun to recover. A report on China’s demographics was also published there, in which the economist called on the authorities to completely abolish all restrictions on the number of children in families.

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New rules for financial marketing

Ren Zeping’s official account on another Chinese social network, Weibo, remained available to new followers. The WeChat restrictions came amid new rules on the online marketing of financial products, which took effect at the end of the previous month.

The rules allow such marketing to be conducted only by financial institutions and third-party internet platforms. Other organizations and individuals are prohibited from doing so, including in a disguised form. Over the past three weeks, a number of financial influencer accounts have disappeared or been permanently blocked.

Ren Zeping previously worked at the Development Research Center of the State Council of the PRC, was chief economist at China Evergrande Group, and founded the financial commentary and research platform Zeping Hongguan. In 2022, his Weibo account was temporarily restricted after a post calling for an additional 2 trillion yuan to be printed to stimulate births.