[US Trending] The Nightmare of Zhongnanhai | AITO Burns Hotter and Hotter, Sohu Auto Muted | With the Fifth Plenary Session Approaching, "Problem Figures" Are Being Watched Again | Tax Pursuit Meets the Bear Market: Who Will Prop Up the Stock Market? |
This episode covers several hot topics: Beijing rights activists and "problematic individuals" are being monitored and placed under guard ahead of the CCP's Fifth Plenary Session; the spontaneous combustion of Huawei AITO vehicles and mobile phones has sparked controversy, leading to the silencing of Sohu Auto; Anhui is promoting the idea of children funding their parents' social security, while pension payments are being delayed; the Chinese stock market has entered a technical bear market, and the deadline for chasing taxes on offshore trusts is impacting the capital market; foreign media analyze that China is facing a long-term economic downturn and balance sheet recession similar to Japan's; finally, a roundup of absurd domestic videos and netizen comments.
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US Hot Search, letting you hear the voice from outside the Great Firewall. Hello, audience friends, welcome to today's US Hot Search, I am Qi Xiaotian. The 20th CCP Central Committee's Fifth Plenary Session is about to be held, and the authorities' law enforcement officers have started working overtime to monitor "problematic individuals" in Beijing. One of those being followed appears to be the Beijing MMA madman Xu Xiaodong. On October 21, Xu Xiaodong revealed in a video on Twitter that he had been followed for the past three or four days by a suspicious person wearing an Arc'teryx jacket, and today he finally caught him. Those following "problematic individuals" during the Fifth Plenary Session are almost certainly state security (MSS), specifically the Domestic Security Department, the First Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security, which usually handles stability maintenance and arresting petitioners. Xu Xiaodong also had an experience of being followed in Nanjing. As a result, the person following him was surrounded by Xu Xiaodong and his buddies, scaring him so much that he ran straight to the police station. Netizens said that only Brother Dong has enough physical deterrence; if it were anyone else, the guy might have jumped up and bitten them. You really do need a strong body.
Before the Fifth Plenary Session, the well-known journalist Gao Yu, who has long been suppressed by the CCP, was also placed under guard. On October 12, Gao Yu tweeted that as soon as her long holiday ended, the guards were sent over. Last year they rented a seven-seater Buick, but this year they just let people sit out in the open, with no place to hide from the wind and rain. They arrived before dawn, and someone would bring them food and change shifts in the afternoon. Gao Yu joked, "May I ask the Beijing Chaoyang state security and Pinghe Street police station, have you paid social security for these guards?" As of October 16, these people were still following her. Netizens analyzed that there are three types of surveillance: one you cannot detect, the second is meant to be detected to put pressure on you, and the third is following you face-to-face to provoke you into taking action. All are team operations.
During the Fifth Plenary Session, those targeted by the CCP also include petitioners coming to Beijing. On October 14, Beijing rights activist Zhao Yonghong and her elderly parents in their eighties were imprisoned at home by the Enjizhuang police station for two days without food. She was forced to open the window in the middle of the night to call for help and called the police multiple times, but instead of help, she was met with a police order: "Watch her and don't let her out." Netizens complained that they are bandits by origin and are just a criminal organization.
Accidents involving Huawei AITO vehicles catching fire are becoming increasingly hot topics in China. In response, the authorities have started to "solve" the people who raise the questions. On October 22, the official Sohu Auto account was banned for 15 days for posting content related to the AITO fire accident. Netizens said that Sohu Auto is an account that usually relies on car company advertising to make a living; even they couldn't help but post about it, which shows that this matter really cannot be covered up. The 15-day ban is on Sohu, but the target of the intimidation is the rest of the automotive media circle.
If one could blame a fire after a car crash on a violent collision, how do you explain it when it catches fire without even crashing? Recently, another AITO owner claimed that his vehicle suddenly caught fire while driving normally, without any collision. However, the official inspection concluded that the cause of the fire was sunlight refracting through an aromatherapy bottle in the car. Some netizens questioned: the vehicle was moving, and the angle of sunlight was constantly changing, so how could it focus on the same spot for a long time and eventually ignite the car? Faced with such test results, the owner could only sigh helplessly: "What else can I say? Huawei should change its business to making lighters, because Huawei products that can instantly catch fire are not just electric cars."
On October 11, when a netizen fell while playing badminton, the Huawei phone he had bought just two months ago in his trouser pocket instantly self-combusted. Ironically, after this video was released, both Phoenix New Media Technology and Phoenix New Media debunked it at the same time. However, when clicking on the debunking content, it showed that sorry, this webpage has drifted away with the wind. Netizens ridiculed: Did Phoenix New Media not get paid? The debunking was just a waste of effort.
Many young people cannot afford to pay their own social security, yet the Chinese Communist Party is promoting a policy for children to financially support their parents in paying for endowment insurance. Recently, an official media outlet in Anhui, China, promoted a policy for children to subsidize their parents in paying for urban and rural resident endowment insurance. After parents pay their current year's endowment insurance themselves, children can provide additional funding to subsidize them, with a maximum limit of 9,000 yuan per person per year. Netizens complained: Can't I just give it directly to my parents? Some netizens stated that they don't even have social security themselves, and some questioned how much they can actually get in the end. In reality, whether you can get it at all in the end is hard to say. On October 21, a netizen in Shandong posted a video saying that their pension did not arrive on time. After consulting the local Public Security Bureau social security office, the monthly pension would be distributed in batches in the next few days, and everyone was asked to be patient. As of October 22, netizens who had not yet received their monthly pension were still anxiously waiting. Netizens joked: The social security office is currently arresting people to pay social security, please everyone wait patiently.
On October 20, a Douyin influencer posted a video saying that anything where you pay first and enjoy later is most likely a scam. Netizens said: Gym cards, haircut cards, and early childhood education cards have taken turns educating me. The moment you prepay, you change from a customer to a creditor, and the kind at the very end of the line. There is no harm without comparison. On October 21, a Weibo blogger posted and displayed South Korea's pension refund system, with a trending search tag at the bottom of the page showing that South Korean social security contributions can be refunded if interrupted, including interest. Netizens said that humanity exists because there is democracy there, with multiple factions competing, so humanity can survive.
Similarly, regarding encouraging ordinary people to save for the long-term future, the approach in the United States is completely different. A Douyin influencer introduced in a video that in order to encourage families to use children's investment accounts, the US government first injects 1,000 USD into eligible children's accounts as startup capital. After that, parents can decide for themselves whether to continue depositing money into it. Simply speaking, instead of chasing you to pay first, the government puts out 1,000 USD first and invites you to enter the market. Meanwhile, the wealthiest person in the US, Elon Musk, recently announced that next year he will gift one share of SpaceX stock to every child in the United States. The video caption stated: When you are also a shareholder, you get a share of economic growth. Netizens behind the Great Firewall complained: Over there, the dividends are solidly distributed to ordinary people, but what about here? Monopoly industries like electricity, water, and tobacco make a fortune, while ordinary people carry mortgages, pay high social security, and even having a child has become a venture capital investment.
On one hand, money is put into children's accounts first to encourage you to invest in the future; on the other hand, young people can barely afford their own social security, yet they are still being called upon to pay extra for their parents. Which one looks more like the people being the masters of the country? Everyone can judge for themselves. Below, we enter the foreign media looking at China segment.
Bull markets are responsible for attracting leeks to enter the market, while bear markets are responsible for reminding everyone that it is time to harvest again. October 22 was the deadline for the Chinese government's historical delinquent tax declaration on offshore trusts, and coincidentally, the Chinese stock market also officially entered a technical bear market on this day. One of the reasons was that some Chinese billionaires had already begun selling stocks and other assets to raise cash in order to prepare tax payments. According to Bloomberg statistics, among the world's top 500 billionaires, at least eight Chinese billionaires hold large amounts of listed company shares through overseas structures, with a total value of about 140.2 billion USD. This includes about 36.9 billion USD of NetEase's Ding Lei, 29.0 billion USD of Pinduoduo's Huang Zheng, and 20.7 billion USD of Xiaomi's Lei Jun. Once these people start selling stocks, it will have an impact on global stock markets. Market observers believe that this wave of tax-chasing actions by the Chinese Communist Party is adding new selling pressure to some Chinese stocks, especially Hong Kong stocks. Of course, billionaires selling stocks is not the only reason the stock market fell into a bear market; the plunge in AI and tech stocks, as well as stimulus policies falling short of expectations, were hitting the market at the same time. This creates a very awkward cycle: when the economy is bad, financial pressure increases, so the government strengthens tax collection; billionaires have to raise money to pay taxes, so they sell stocks and assets, creating market pressure; with even greater market pressure, the national team might have to use more money to prop up the market—draining water on one hand and pumping water on the other. As for who ends up catching the falling knife at the bottom, it still has to be China's leek stock retail investors.
During China's 40 years of economic prosperity, foreign media speculated that China might one day surpass the United States to become the world's largest economy. However, new analysis from foreign media now suggests that before China can catch up with the U.S., it may first catch up with another country: Japan. And what it is catching up with is not Japan's affluent lifestyle, but the years of economic stagnation that followed the bursting of Japan's real estate bubble. The Financial Times recently published a long report titled "China's nightmare is becoming the next Japan." The article poses a question: has China already entered its first "lost decade," with the possibility of a second and third to follow? The article notes that in 1990, Japan's real estate and stock market bubbles burst, leading to a long-term economic downturn. Companies were reluctant to invest, citizens were afraid to consume, wage growth stagnated, and prices remained persistently low. Japan experienced what is known as the "lost decade," which later extended into decades of economic stagnation. Today, similar phenomena are beginning to appear in China. According to a "Japanification index" updated by Goldman Sachs, the degree of Japanification in the Chinese economy over the past five years has even surpassed that of Japan. China is similarly facing a real estate collapse, population decline, weak consumption, deflationary pressure, and massive debt. According to Capital Economics, the total debt of China's government and private sectors has reached approximately 300% of GDP, approaching Japanese levels.
The article interviewed a 29-year-old semiconductor engineer in Shanghai, Mr. Xu, who works in a high-tech industry heavily supported by the state. While he has a decent income and should theoretically be confident about the future, he is increasingly afraid to spend money. Because housing prices are falling, youth unemployment remains high, and social security is inadequate, he says that consumption downgrading and pessimism are everywhere around him, adding to his own stress and making him even less willing to spend. This consumer psychology is very similar to that of Japan in the 1990s. Now, many restaurants in China, in order to compete for customers, have even launched set meals for less than 10 yuan. Consumers only care about filling their stomachs, and companies are forced to keep cutting prices to survive, resulting in thinner and thinner profit margins. The Japanese restaurant industry experienced a similar price war back then; the price of a beef bowl reached 400 yen at the end of 1990 and continued to fall thereafter, not returning to 400 yen until 2021—a full 31 years later. Moreover, the scale of the collapse in China's real estate market even exceeds that of Japan at the time. According to Macquarie Group, the area of new housing starts in China has fallen by 78% from its peak. In comparison, during the U.S. real estate crisis from 2005 to 2009, new housing starts fell by 73%, and the long-term decline in Japan's corresponding indicator was about 65%. The real estate collapse has brought not only falling housing prices but also the shrinkage of household wealth. In the past, Chinese people were accustomed to investing their money in real estate, believing that houses would only become more valuable. But now, many young people have witnessed housing prices fall by 30% to 40% in five years, and naturally, they are no longer willing to buy homes. Economists call this phenomenon a "balance sheet recession": housing prices have fallen, but mortgages remain. People are afraid to spend and only want to pay off debt as quickly as possible, while companies are unwilling to borrow money to invest. Consumption and investment decline together, and the economy becomes increasingly sluggish. The worse the economy, the harder it is for income to grow, and the heavier the debt burden becomes, forming a vicious cycle.
To cope with this economic downturn, the government needs to significantly increase fiscal spending to stimulate domestic demand, but China's current measures are far from sufficient. Because China's exports remain strong, Beijing believes that as long as exports continue to grow, it can buy time while waiting for the real estate market to recover. Meanwhile, Xi Jinping continues to pour massive resources into chips, artificial intelligence, and advanced manufacturing, hoping to overtake the U.S. through technological competition. A Chinese government advisor interviewed by the Financial Times revealed that top officials in Beijing believe the biggest difference between China and Japan is that China is actively investing in future high-tech industries. This advisor even suggested that China's real estate adjustment was not entirely passive but was intentionally pushed by the government. He believes Beijing is sacrificing current domestic consumption confidence in exchange for long-term future benefits. But the question is how long these so-called short-term sacrifices will last. In August this year, China's youth unemployment rate reached 18.9%. Many young people not only cannot find ideal jobs but are increasingly losing faith that working hard, buying a house, and getting married will lead to a better life than their parents had. This loss of confidence in the future may be more dangerous than an aging population, because when citizens and companies do not believe the future will be better, they are even less willing to spend and invest. The less consumption there is, the worse the economy becomes, and the more afraid everyone is to spend. This was precisely one of the important reasons for Japan's long-term economic stagnation.
For years, Xi Jinping has constantly emphasized the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and vowed to make China number one in the world. However, today's China may welcome its own "lost decade" before that day of surpassing the United States ever arrives. Even more ironically, Beijing believes it is making the necessary sacrifices for a future technological powerhouse, but for those unemployed young people, families whose housing prices have plummeted, and ordinary people whose wages haven't risen in years, the decade they lost is not something that can simply be made up for after ten years. Next, let's take a look at a few absurd videos. A CCP diplomat claimed that China has no anti-Japan education, so our American trending topics just had to slap that diplomat right in the face. On October 20, a boy recorded a video claiming he wanted to give Japanese people a lesson in popular science about Chinese tangerines, teaching them to only eat the peel and seeds of the tangerine. Netizens sighed with sorrow, wondering who on earth could have indoctrinated him to this extent. Another netizen said, delivering food for two days will cure that. An absurd phenomenon unique to China is that even checking one's own bank account requires watching advertisements first. On October 21, a netizen in Jiangsu opened the Jiangsu Bank app and was bombarded with fourteen pop-up ads in a row. The netizen laughed and said even certain apps don't have this many ads.
At the end of the show, we enter the netizen interaction segment. Li Lei commented on the Little Pinks harassing an old man who wrapped waste goods in the national flag, saying that idle people love to bully the weak with high-sounding excuses, demanding things of others while ignoring their own driving safety hazards of using a mobile phone while driving. Ga Ga commented on the burning Huawei Aito car, saying, thirty-day chickens, forty-day ducks, sixty-day instant-built cars like the M678; people wouldn't dare eat instant-built chickens and ducks, so it's hard to understand car owners who buy such instant-built cars. Zhao Jiaren joked that the facts are already very clear, this car owner is risking his life to smear Huawei and must have received black money from Dongchedi. Today's US Trending Topics ends here, thank you all for watching. New viewers and friends,
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