>BEIJING — China has long made it clear that reporting on politics, civil society and sensitive historical events is forbidden. Increasingly, it wants to keep negative news about the economy under control, too.
>The list of topics includes:
1. Worse-than-expected data that could show the economy is slowing.
2. Local government debt risks.
3. The impact of the trade war with the United States.
4. Signs of declining consumer confidence
5. The risks of stagflation, or rising prices coupled with slowing economic growth
6. “Hot-button issues to show the difficulties of people’s lives.”
>“It’s possible that the situation is more serious than previously thought or that they want to prevent a panic,” said Zhang Ming, a retired political science professor from Renmin University in Beijing.
>Indeed, another notice sent on Friday instructed online news outlets to remove comments at the bottom of news articles that “bad-mouth the Chinese economy.”
