Opinion | A Week of Golden Negativity

By Tom Fowdy

This week is China's "Golden Week". It is so called because it is the longest holiday of the year, with the period of Spring Festival and the National Day fused into one marathon stint. During this time, millions of Chinese pursue leisure and travel activities throughout the country in trips that amount to hundreds of millions. This year is particularly special because it is the first time Chinese people have gained a property opportunity since the covid pandemic, so there is a lot of catching up to do. Indeed, domestic travel reservations and bookings have surged 88% in the past few weeks with over 21 million people taking to the skies on domestic flights.

But amidst all the euphoria for travel, the Western mainstream media are yet again projecting crisis, misery, and pessimism onto China's prospects. To read just a couple of headlines, the BBC leads with: "Golden Week: Chinese seek cheap wanderlust in economic gloom" which of course goes on to describe a "gloomy economy" whereas Reuters, most profoundly, published an article saying: "Holidays at home for record number of Chinese as economic slowdown bites" which goes on to imply that the surge in travel domestically is somehow a sign of poor economic conditions because Chinese are not traveling abroad! Of course, this seems to exaggerate the extent as to which Chinese travel overseas on this holiday, when domestic travel has always been the incentive.

Yet again we see the pattern of mainstream media reporting that seeks to present a negative spin on China's economy as an objective reality, even as Western economies fare worse than Beijing's. Every single report depicts the situation as a "slump", "crisis", "malaise" so on and very strong political conclusions are always drawn from it. We've had dozens of op-eds in the usual publications already that have proclaimed the sheer end of China's rise, and usually all of it is spun up into a self-confirming narrative that the government's own policies, as well as provoking a backlash from the US, are always at the root of the blame.

That of course is never the case for the British, or American economy for that matter, is depicted. Back home, I'm watching how scores of retail chains in the UK are closing down and collapsing as consumer spending tanks amidst crippling inflation and poor government policies. Yet despite this, a meager quarterly growth of 0.3% or so is proclaimed in the British conservative-leaning press as a tremendous economic success. Take for example, this article in the Financial Times, an outlet known for its ferocious negativity about China. "UK economy makes stronger recovery from pandemic than previously estimated." What's the story really about? The British economy is 1% or so larger than what it was in 2019.

Alternatively, Reuters, also a fan of pushing the China slowdown narrative, runs with "Revisions show UK economy no longer the post-pandemic laggard." If you take this headline for what it is, you'd think Britain is booming, but from their China, Beijing is stagnating. It's almost a depiction of two completely different and falsified realities that reveal the agenda-driven reporting manifest within it. It is subtle, yet explicit when such comparisons are made. In comparison, however, Britain's Christmas holidays will not even come close to unleashing the travel and spending bonanza of which has been seen in China during Golden Week. Because the truth is, as hidden from frontline reporting, is that British people's standards of living are shrinking, and it is very much acknowledged amongst economists that the country is growing poorer.

But apparently, it's China who you should be negative about, because the agenda is to deter trade, to deter optimism and deter investment in order to make that psychology a self-fulfilling prophecy of which pushes people away, as I stated in a previous piece they have determined the Chinese dream is over. It is sad to say that to some extent, this psychological warfare is working, which is why China does need to quickly rekindle momentum. The mainstream media are happy to present China's youth unemployment and housing problems as a death kneel to its growth. But, given the success of Golden Week, China's economy is likely to receive a boost. The state is refraining, perhaps for good reasons, in unleashing a stimulus burst. That's because economic growth is a marathon, not a sprint, and it is been wholly damaging for Western countries to have done so post-pandemic even if they gained advantages initially.

The key point though is to have an objective picture. Endless negative coverage surrounding China's economy, combined with a completely misleading depiction of optimism at home (when all evidence is to the contrary) does not even try to show us the true picture, even to the point of painting huge travel periods such as Golden Week in ridiculously pessimistic terms.

The author is a well-seasoned writer and analyst with a large portfolio related to China topics, especially in the field of politics, international relations and more. He graduated with an Msc. in Chinese Studies from Oxford University in 2018.

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