Times are really tough in China right now.
The economy is tanking fast, And college graduates are
having trouble finding jobs. But fortunately, the government has a solution:
Eat it. Wait, what?! Welcome to China Uncensored, I’m Chris Chappell.
You know, things in China are really starting to look up these days.
Youth unemployment hit a record high last month.
There’s been a surge in foreclosures. China is sweltering through record temperatures,
All good signs that…China’s economy is going to hell in a handbasket.
And it sure is.
China’s GDP grew in the second quarter, but it missed economists’ growth forecasts.
Which is kind of like saying Michael Jackson was tall…compared to all his “friends.”
Yes, the economy might be growing. But that’s because zero covid hit it with a wrecking ball.
It would be hard to get much worse than it already was.
According to official data, the economy “grew at a 6.3% annual pace in the April-June quarter,
much slower than the 7% plus growth analysts had forecast”
Yes, somehow, all those people who were predicting a big rebound after zero covid ended were wrong.
I mean, initially they were right. China’s economy
did seem to rebound right after 3 years of zero covid isolation.
But that was probably just all the people who were locked in their apartments and forcibly
starved finally getting to buy food. I’m not sure how much buying groceries helps the stock market.
Now, that economic recovery is sputtering. And the prognosis is not good.
In fact, “Some analysts now think the economy
might not have grown at all during the second quarter.”
China denies this, of course. Which means it’s probably true!
The thing is, everyone likes to quote China’s GDP data,
But official statistics routinely overstate China’s growth rate more
than guys on dating sites overstate their heights.
Even China’s top leaders say China’s GDP is “man-made.”
Another sign that the economy’s in trouble—even China’s biggest cheerleader
is cutting its growth forecast. That’s right. Even Wall Street is getting bearish on China.
“If you're buying any stock because of its Chinese exposure is downright moronic.
Because China's doing terribly right now, it's got the exact opposite problem of our country,
an economy that's slowing to the point where you have to start wondering if
they're sinking into a serious recession.” This is like seeing Kanye West tell Taylor Swift,
“I’mma let you finish, but Beyonce is overrated and anyone investing in her
needs to pull out immediately.” It’s not just Wall Street that’s
bearish on China’s economy, though. People who live in China are, too.
That’s why Chinese consumers are saving more and borrowing less.
Property sales fell by double digits in June compared to the same time last year.
And even though China’s retail sales grew by 3.1% in June, that’s a plunge from 12.7%
the month before, which means consumers are starting to cut back on spending.
And remember, that’s the official data. The true picture is probably much, much worse.
Like how if a guy on a dating site says he’s 5’3”, he probably actually makes a
living baking cookies in trees . Now, as I mentioned earlier,
one of the things that has gone up is unemployment, especially for China’s youth.
Among 16-24-year-olds, unemployment hit a record high of 21.3% last month.
Which must be bittersweet in a country historically known for using child labor. That’d
be like seeing an oven shortage in Germany. This has led to so-called full-time children,
zombie graduation photos, and anger at how the government is tracking unemployment.
I’ll tell you more, right after this quick commercial break.
Welcome back.
China’s youth unemployment reached a record high in June, and that’s according to official data.
Part of that is because the government encouraged people to go to grad school during the pandemic
to prevent this very situation. But guess what?! It worked!
The number of university graduates is expected to reach 11.6 million this year – a record high.
All those people finished grad school? The only thing I finished during the
pandemic was every single season of the Great British Bake Off … twice.
But now all those graduates face a job market with no jobs.
Way to get their hopes up. This is like telling guys who play in Magic the Gathering tournaments
to grab life preservers to prepare for all the ladies they’re gonna be drowning in… any day now…
Youth unemployment is the highest it’s been since China started putting out statistics in 2018.
And the government is warning that it’s still going to get worse before it gets better.
Which is basically the official slogan of
communism. Stiiiiiill waiting for one example where it actually got better.
As you can imagine, this has killed any optimism grad students had about getting their diplomas,
which was supposed to be a ticket to a better life, starting with a better job.
Instead of smiling and showing off their diplomas, grads are now taking “zombie” style graduation
photos. And no, these aren’t just them doing their best Joe Biden impression. For some,
it’s about their bleak job prospects. For others, it’s part of the lying flat movement, a protest
against the 996 rat race that has forced many young people to work from 9 am to 9 pm 6 days a
week. This kind of work culture has made many job seekers ultra-pessimistic about their future, even
if they do find a job. Which is why some just want to lay low and not enter the workforce at all.
As we’ve talked about before, the government is terrified of young people being out of
work. And it’s especially terrified they’ll blame the government for the bad economy.
Kind of like how the Hamburglar (corner box) is terrified he’ll get blamed for burgling
hams. Who else are they going to blame?! So “Beijing is pushing state-owned companies
to hire more graduates, giving subsidies to businesses to recruit young people and
trying to boost vocational education in order to address the skills mismatch in the economy.”
Yes, after the government encouraged college students to go to grad school during the pandemic,
they’re now encouraging them to get vocational training.
They’re also encouraging them to look for work in the countryside,
…join the military…
Or take the civil service exam to work for the government.
Basically, anything to keep them distracted. If only you could make a career out of watching the
Great British Bake Off . I’d be a CEO by now. But many young people aren’t buying it. In fact,
many are choosing not to work at all. They’ve become known as China’s “full-time”
or “paid children.” Basically, young people who go home to live with their parents.
“They provide services such as housework in exchange for financial support from their
parents and in some cases may carry on with their studies or try to find a job.”
It’s kind of like if instead of being a comedy, Billy Madison was a soul crushing drama.
Now, whether that’s what people actually call them or just what the
government *wants you* to call them isn’t clear. One netizen on Weibo, China’s version of twitter,
wrote that “Negative terms such as ‘parasite’ (寄生) or ‘burden on parents (坑爹妈)’ have vanished
from the media. Instead, positive terms like ‘full-time children (全职儿女)’ and ‘staying at home
to take care of parents’ (留在家乡陪父母) have emerged.” I’m sure that was just to protect the children’s
fragile feelings, though. It’s not like the government was trying to sweep this phenomena
under the rug. Cause the CCP is fine with brutalizing their citizens with sticks and stones…
but they know that words are what really hurt. This is also why “Censors recently took down a
series of graphics published by Sohu News that showed youth unemployment above 20%
and juvenile criminal prosecutions up 42.8%, among other statistics.”
Wouldn’t want China’s youth to know what they’re a part of.
And speaking of the government’s response, Xi Jinping has basically told unemployed
youth to “eat cake.” Although, the Chinese version sounds way
less romantic. I’ll tell you what he said, right after this final commercial break.
Welcome back. China’s youth unemployment is high, and, possibly,
its overall unemployment is high as well. The reason I say “possibly” is because
it’s hard to get an accurate read on China’s unemployment figures.
Blind dyslexics with ADD have an easier time getting accurate reads.
The official unemployment number for the general population is only 5.2%. For youth,
it’s four times that. But that general number
only includes those who live in cities, not the rural population.
The rural population is almost half a billion people, or roughly 36% of the population,
so that’s a big chunk of the country that’s not being counted.
This is like a heart surgeon saying,
“I have an almost perfect success rate…if you ignore all those widows in the countryside.”
And then there’s what the government considers “employment”.
“According to the National Statistics Bureau. . .The employed population refers to individuals
who . . . ‘have worked for one hour or more and have received labor compensation or earned income,
as well as those who are temporarily absent from work due to vacation,
temporary shutdowns, and similar reasons.’” So anyone who has worked for an hour or more
during the survey period, which is usually about a week, is considered employed.
“Oh, you mow your neighbor’s lawn once a week? Congrats, you’re gainfully employed!”
Just look at these young employees. The Chinese economy will turn around any day now!
That could explain why China’s economy is tanking,
and yet its general unemployment rate has remained steady.
Or it could just be the government picking a
number out of a hat. Either scenario is plausible.
As you can imagine, this way of “sugarcoating” the data has led to a lot of frustration.
And considering the amount of sugar they’re coating it in,
these folks are lucky they didn’t get type 1 diabetes.
Adding salt to the wound, the official Weibo account of China Business Network launched
the hashtag “The focus of employment for fresh university graduates continues to shift downwards”
Yes, all that is the hashtag.
“Shift downwards” is a euphemistic way of saying people who can’t find work in
big cities have to move to smaller cities or rural areas to find jobs.
You know, where they don’t count you. This is like a surgeon throwing a patient onto
the street mid-surgery and saying, “Ha! Still a perfect record of no one dying on my table!”
According to What’s on Weibo, Chinese netizens are seeing right through it all.
“From manipulating employment statistics to employing euphemistic terms for unemployment,
Chinese netizens are becoming increasingly weary of the government’s use of wordplay
and number manipulation to portray an illusory sense of prosperity.”
Possibly the most offensive, though, was when Xi Jinping told
China’s unemployed youth to “eat bitterness”. Yes, when you run out of money, you can drink your
tears and eat your bitterness. Problem solved! Xi also told young people to “seek self-inflicted
hardships” and used his time in the countryside during the Cultural Revolution as an example.
Xi might be forgetting that his country already has a problem with “self-inflicted hardships.”
One article claims: “Farming, pulling coal, damming, picking dung… In [the
countryside] Xi Jinping did almost everything, and ate almost everything.”
Including a lot of bitterness, apparently. Strange. I always
pegged him as having more of a sweet tooth. Xi supposedly said, “The countless instances
of success in life demonstrate that in one’s youth, choosing to eat bitterness
is also choosing to reap rewards” The question many are asking now is,
why should they want to suffer? Didn’t they suffer through college and grad school to
get a degree so they could get a good job and suffer less? What’s in it for them?
Well the short answer is, nothing. At what point does it go from character building to BDSM ? Hey,
there’s a career path for ‘em. We’ve talked before about how Xi
Jinping is trying to drum up nostalgia for the Cultural Revolution to get people to stick with
the Communist Party through hard times. He saw how Mao was worshiped like a god
by the Red Guards and did anything he said, no matter how inhumane it was.
Xi Jinping knows that tough times are here and that more are coming. He also knows that if the
Party is going to survive it, he needs to build that cult of personality so he and the Party don’t
become the target of angry citizens. Chinese state media has been urging
youth to contribute to the “national rejuvenation” of the Chinese nation.
The question now is, what would they be rejuvenating? The surveillance state? The
genocidal dictatorship? The oppressive regime that censors its own statistics?
Like I said, things are really starting to look up in China. Because when you’re this deep in a hole,
up is the only place you can look. And China Uncensored would not exist
without the support from viewers like you. Frequent demonetization and age restriction
by YouTube would have run us out of business. Most of our budget comes from fan support
on our exclusive social media platform on Locals.. That’s chinauncensored.locals.com
You’ll get a bunch of cool perks,
including the chance to have me answer your questions on the show.
Today’s question comes from The Crazy Years.
“Ukraine is the fourth largest producer of grain in the world…Grain prices are going to go through
the roof. China doesn't subsidize food prices for its consumers. I wonder how the Chinese people
will react when food prices skyrocket? And how Chinese farmers will be able to afford to feed
their chickens and pigs? And what this'll do to China's already fragile economy? And how
will this affect Sino-Russian relations? Lots of questions with nothing but ugly answers.
That’s an excellent question, the Crazy Years.
There’s a reason China’s 12 point peace plan for Ukraine includes Facilitating grain exports.
China was heavily invested in Ukraine and depended on their grain exports.
Meanwhile, China’s own farmland is in serious trouble because of environmental factors.
China is facing a food crisis.
They even passed a law about food waste.
Now Chinese people are no stranger to famine, thank you Mao’s Great Leap Forward.
They know how to panic buy.
And as for livestock, China is going to extreme
lengths. Like consolidating farms into pig skyscrapers.
I think China is probably very upset at Russia right now. They probably thought Russia could
quickly and easily take Ukraine, and there’d be no disruption to grain exports. Boy were they wrong.
Thanks for your question and your support the Crazy Years.
And thank you for watching.
Check out ChinaUncensored.Locals.com to join us on the exclusive social media site Locals.
Once again I’m Chris Chappell. See you next time.