Specifically, the government is instructing factory owners to begin turning on their machines and making it appear as though production is ramping up, despite the fact that most workers have still yet to return to their jobs amid the still-serious virus outbreak.
As reported by Zero Hedge, the idea is to pretend the Chinese economy has recovered in order to, most likely, calm global jitters -- and markets.
Natural News reported in mid-February that analysts who know where to look to get a clearer picture of Chinese economic activity without relying on official government statistics (which are seldom accurate) had reported that despite Beijing's claims that the country's economy was not taking a huge hit because of the virus, the opposite was true.
Notably:
Over the past few days, these analysts have been able to piece together a number of indicators suggesting that a) the spread of the virus is much more profound and widespread than the government in Beijing is saying; and b) mass quarantines and other actions aimed at controlling population movement are having such a significant negative impact on economic activity that the demand for power needed by factories and other business enterprises has fallen off dramatically.
In particular, the analysts noted that Chinese power usage was down dramatically, which of course meant that China's industrial output was also suffering -- as was the Chinese economy. If factories don't operate, goods are not produced and workers don't get paid.
Initially, the analysts estimated that the drop-off in Chinese industrial power consumption only amounted to about 1.5 percent throughout the country. But, as Zero Hedge notes, the fact that Chinese government officials are instructing factories to turn on machines just so they use more power only gives the impression they are functioning -- when they are not really producing anything.
The regime is in self-defense mode now
And that's because Chinese economic output is really far, far less than anyone can imagine -- as in, close to zero, according to ZH.
So why fool the world? In reality, the fake-out has less to do with global investors in China and more to do with the Chinese people themselves.
"...[W]hile Beijing may report any fabricated data it wants -- whether coronavirus-related or economic -- in hopes of easing the mistrust and social panic, China's population still has absolutely no confidence in either Beijing, in Beijing's ability to contain the coronavirus, or especially in Beijing's apparent willingness to sacrifice its population in order to reopen some mothballed factories to give the impression that the economy is on the mend," Zero Hedge's Tyler Durden reported.
It must said that while China is ruled with an 'iron fist,' per se, the country's shift decades ago to a market-and-capitalist-based economy has provided the Chinese people with wealth and personal advancement only dreamed about by prior generations.
And now that the Chinese population has grown accustomed to earning a better living, for the most part, most are not about to see the country return to the bad ol' days of low wages, low opportunity, and raw tyrannical oppression.
So the Communists who run things out of Beijing have got to make it appear as though they have a handle on this coronavirus thing and that so much forward progress has been made the economy is recovering and times are going to be good again.
But it's a ruse, Zero Hedge notes, and one that the world's economic analysts who know what to look for -- true economic indicators that can't be faked by the Chinese government -- know reveals the country's true economic health, or lack thereof.
China's not racing against the clock to contain coronavirus. The government is racing against time to get things back to normal or suffer widespread unrest which would endanger the regime.
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