Chinese A shares plummeted again on the 2nd, with market sentiment in despair. Unexpectedly, a large number of Chinese stock investors chose to gather on the Weibo account of the US Embassy in China to vent their frustrations, triggering a “giraffe incident”…
(Background information:
China’s stock market rescue “crackdown on short selling”: CSRC suspends restricted stock lending, bottoming out?)
In recent times, the Chinese stock market has been in a continuous decline. According to the First Financial Daily, the Shanghai Composite Index (SHCOMP), one of the three major indexes of A shares, plummeted to 2,666.33 points on Friday (2nd), hitting a new low since March 2020. It only rebounded to just above the key level of 2,700 points at the end of the session.
Compared to the soaring momentum of the US stock market, since the beginning of 2024, the Shanghai Composite Index (Shanghai Stock Exchange) has accumulated a 6.27% decline, the Shenzhen Component Index has fallen by 13.77%, and the ChiNext Index has plummeted by as much as 16.81%, all recording the largest monthly decline since the Chinese stock market crash in 2015.
Faced with the poor performance of A shares, Chinese stock investors, who are bleeding financially and emotionally, found nowhere to vent their grievances and chose to flood the Weibo account of the US Embassy in China.
Further reading:
China’s “ban on short selling”! Largest brokerage suspends margin trading for retail investors
Chinese stock investors flock to the Weibo account of the US Embassy
Here’s what happened: on Friday evening (2nd), the Weibo account of the US Embassy in China posted an article about giraffe conservation. However, instead of discussing animal conservation, the comments section was flooded with pleas for help and self-deprecating remarks from Chinese stock investors.
A large number of netizens left comments on the post, such as “Shouldn’t you protect me? Giraffes are life, and so am I,” “Before I started trading stocks, I loved my country too,” “It’s said that cancer support groups have more confidence than A-share groups,” and “Save the poor Chinese stock investors, I love the United States.”
Some stock investors even bluntly stated that now is the best time to attack China, as public sentiment is scattered: “Let us be listed on Nasdaq,” “May democracy come to China,” and “The US Embassy never expected to become a crying wall for Chinese people on a simplified Chinese platform.”
Why choose the embassy?
As of the time of writing, the post has received 190,000 likes, over 34,000 comments, and more than 6,300 shares. As for why so many netizens chose to leave comments on the Weibo account of the US Embassy in China, it is speculated that even if China wants to control public opinion, they may need to negotiate with the embassy to have the comments deleted. Additionally, some netizens have said, “The embassy account won’t be blocked,” which is why it attracted a large number of users to comment and jokingly referred to this incident as the “giraffe incident.”
As of the deadline, an increasing number of comments (sharp criticism) with thousands of likes have been deleted. Attached below are screenshots of successfully intercepted comments.
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