We have mentioned the rural bank scam a few times, with newsletter 73 covering some individual stories of the victims.
Let me recap what happened a few days ago.
On July 10th, a few thousands people showed up in the city of Zhengzhou, capital of the Henan province where the rural banks are. They seemed very well prepared with banners, and some banners were even in English, clearly a sign that the protesters wanted international coverage:
This is very rare because Chinese citizens are normally very against “foreign power” meddling with domestic issues, which is also the government line every time China was criticized by international community for human rights abuse.
A year ago, the city of Zhengzhou suffered a flood that resulted in a highway tunnel submerged in water with hundreds of cars stuck inside. To this day, no one knows how many cars and passengers were stuck and how many people have died. When some foreign media sent their reporters on the ground, the citizens of Zhengzhou came out to block them for fear that the foreign media was there to make the government look bad. You can read about it in this old twitter thread.
But these bank depositors, who managed to organize themselves from all over China to stage a public protest with banners in English, seemed to have surprised everyone on Chinese social media.
The Chinese government was not so much impressed though. If anything, they seemed well prepared. Very quickly, police disguised in plain clothes were sent out to break up the protesters, you can see a few videos here and here.
Reported by CNN: China crushes mass protest by bank depositors demanding their life savings back.
Southern China Morning Post claimed that the men who beat up the protesters were unidentified.
But on Chinese social media, people are posting of photos of a police in disguise
HK people were reminded of the thugs that beat up protesters and commuters in subway in 2019.
Some people on social media noticed that the depositors think that Chairman Mao can bring justice to them, as if they could have money to put in a bank under Mao’s ruling. Others noticed that the protesters tried their best to make it clear that they were not against the government, they only wanted their money back. But to the Government, this does not make any difference. They just want to stop the protest.
For HK people, the difference from the 2019 protest can not be bigger: HK people did not fight for economic interest, they wanted freedom.
The bank depositors were mostly middle class and had enough money to put into the banks. They are the majority of Chinese who like the current system because they have not been “hammered” (an internet slang from Chinese social media, to describe the crushing punishment from the Chinese government). At the end of the CNN report cited above, a Mr. Sun was interviewed:
Sun said he was covered in bruises and had a swollen lower back after being repeatedly stomped by security guards at the protest.
“The incident completely overturned my perception of the government. I’ve lived all my life placing so much faith in the government. After today, I’ll never trust it again,” he said
Many young Chinese on social media were equally shocked. Obviously they did not know that the government can beat up people.
Even the official Weibo account of the US embassy in China was flooded with unusual comments, asking the US government to help. Some wrote: “Don’t you guys just love this kind of stuff? Help them.” This is against the years of indoctrination of the Chinese government. So even those who came to ask for help acknowledged that they used to call the US government names, but this time they will not, they say.
On July 15th, the Chinese government announced that depositors with less than 50,000 yuan can withdraw their money from the banks. They claimed that the money comes from the confiscated criminal investors. People pointed out that this announcement made it clear that the central bank will not take any responsibility to pay the depositors the insurance money as required by Chinese banking laws.
Most people are suspicious of the announcement. They think it is just a tactic to slow down the momentum and break up the depositors. So far, no one can withdraw money from the bank.
Meanwhile, on July 18th, a video of tanks rolling on the streets of Zhengzhou was circulating on Chinese social media. One can be sure that the government is very well prepared to do anything to fight the depositors.
In another video posted, you can hear people asking, “What is this for? Are they going to Japan?”.
Of course they have not heard of June 4th. They are like Li Jiaqi. BTW, on Weibo, people are still asking why Li Jiaqi is gone.
Meanwhile, someone found a police announcement two years ago about a Mr. Zhu, who went onto Wechat to warn people about the bank fraud, and he caused a small scale bank run. So he was arrested for spreading rumours and got administrative detention.
On July 19th, New York Times had an article, “My Worldview Has Been Destroyed”: Chinese Banking Scandal Tests Faith in the System. But a former NYT reporter, Bill Bishop, commented on twitter: > maybe am 2 jaded but have seen many cycles of stories like this since 00s. so many scams, know many people personally who’ve been victimized.& yet it’s never “existential”
China’s economy is in trouble. Youth unemployment is at 20%, migrant workers could not find jobs in the cities, small business are shutting down because of the COVID policy. I have never seen foreign investment so pessimistic about Chinese economy.
Here are two reports worth reading:
From Bloomberg: China Is Pariah for Global Investors as Xi’s Policies Backfire.
From the twitter thread of a Bloomberg reporter: China’s property crisis is getting much worse. These four charts show just how grim it’s looking.