In China, a new term, "garbage time," has emerged as a way to indirectly express concerns about the country's economic decline. The term, originally used in sports to describe a period of a game when one team is so far ahead that a comeback is impossible, has been repurposed to reflect a sense of hopelessness around China's ailing economy. Writers have used historical allegories to argue that centralized power, rejection of free trade, and loss of public trust have led to "garbage time" in China and other state-controlled economies. While these commentaries did not explicitly mention modern China or the Communist Party, they were seen as implicit challenges to the country's authoritarian governance and state-controlled economy. The concept of "garbage time" contradicts the Marxist idea of historical inevitability promoted by the Chinese government. The term's online popularity peaked in July, leading to accusations of sowing pessimism and idealizing Western values by Chinese officialdom and academics. The debate around "garbage time" reflects broader anxieties about the economy and the need for urgent changes to address them.