The decision to close the sometimes outspoken news service comes at a time when Beijing is trying to maintain an upbeat economic narrative to
ensure confidence in the economy and prevent further deterioration in
financial markets.
NetEase said only that it had encountered “serious problems” and the firm, with a market value of US$24.7 billion, had conducted “in-depth
and comprehensive reflections” and decided to close down the channel for
an undisclosed period of time.
The suspension of service is intended to “maintain order in cyberspace communications” and “create a clean and tidy cyberspace” –
phrases that come directly from a speech by Chinese President Xi Jinping
in April 2016 and which have since become overriding policy principles
for Beijing’s tighter control of the internet.
The statement was published at 11.54am, six minutes before the suspension started. The vagueness of the statement triggered wild
guesses about what the channel has done to anger Chinese censors.
Phone calls to the public relations office of NetEase went unanswered.
A source close to the firm’s operation team said the channel’s loud and persistent appeal for a deeper cut in personal income taxes may have
crossed the line for Beijing.When China’s largely ceremonial
legislature started to solicit public views to amend China’s personal
income tax law, the channel published a petition letter in the name of
its own “NetEase research bureau”, saying China should raise the monthly
personal income tax threshold to 10,000 yuan (US$1,450) from the
previous 3,500 yuan.
The legislature did not heed the NetEase appeal, instead raising the threshold to 5,000 yuan a month. After the law’s passage, the channel
published another opinion piece by an outspoken academic, saying the new
threshold did not reflect public opinion.
A source from another mainland internet portal, which receives instructions from Chinese censors, said the harsh punishment over
NetEase’s financial and economic news coverage may be linked to an
ongoing campaign by Beijing to stabilise confidence in China’s economic
prospects amid an escalating trade war with the United States.
“Trade war is the likely reason,” said the source, who declined to be named. “We’ve received warnings about trade war coverage.”
