Chinese cities are struggling to pay their bills as 'hidden debts' soar - "Three years of strict pandemic controls in China and a real estate crash have drained local government coffers, leaving authorities across the country struggling with mountains of debt. The problem has gotten so extreme that some cities are now unable to provide basic services, and the risk of default is rising. Analysts estimate China’s outstanding government debts surpassed 123 trillion yuan ($18 trillion) last year, of which nearly $10 trillion is so-called “hidden debt” owed by risky local government financing platforms that are backed by cities or provinces. As the financial pressure has mounted, regional governments have reportedly been slashing wages, cutting transportation services and reducing fuel subsidies in the middle of a harsh winter. Thousands of people in the northern province of Hebei had trouble heating their homes in November and December because of a shortage of natural gas, according to multiple Chinese media reports. Cuts in government subsidies were partly to blame, according to state-owned news site Jiemian. In January, in the northernmost province of Heilongjiang, households in the city of Hegang were also left without heat after local firms severely restricted supply. The companies blamed the move on a lack of government subsidies. The lack of heating in the dead of winter has led to widespread complaints on social media... Local governments have exhausted their budgets after spending enormous amounts of money on enforcing frequent Covid lockdowns, mass testing and setting up quarantine centers... “Beijing is facing an economic minefield of its own making,” said Craig Singleton, senior fellow for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington. “All told, China’s current debt crisis represents a perfect storm.” It’s not yet clear how much the country has spent in total on fighting the pandemic. But one province, Guangdong, revealed that it had spent $22 billion on eliminating Covid over the three years beginning 2020. Revenue, meanwhile, contracted sharply over the same period. Rolling lockdowns seriously dented household incomes, leading many to reduce spending, which in turn resulted in less tax revenue for local governments. Huge tax breaks to support businesses through the pandemic also reduced government income. Further complicating matters is the housing market slump; home prices have been falling for 16 straight months. Land sales, which typically account for more than 40% of local government revenue, have collapsed. Last year, a number of cities suspended bus services due to budget constraints, including Leiyang in Hunan province and Yangjiang in Guangdong, according to operators’ announcements. Separately, Hegang, the city in Heilongjiang province, made history in early 2022 by becoming the first to be forced to undergo a fiscal restructuring due to grave debt distress, according to state media reports... Public sector jobs, considered the most secure in the country, were also affected elsewhere. In June, several wealthy eastern provinces — including Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu -— slashed pay by as much as 30%, according to Chinese news website Caixin... There are already signs local governments are having trouble repaying their liabilities. In early January, a troubled government-owned company in the southwestern province of Guizhou responsible for building infrastructure projects announced that its lenders had given it an extra 20 years to repay loans worth $2.3 billion. Loan rollovers with a such a long time frame are extremely rare in China... The central government in Beijing has signaled it’s not coming to the rescue... China’s economy is in a severe downturn. GDP grew only 3% last year, the second worst growth in 46 years. The government had previously resorted to the old playbook of encouraging local governments to borrow more money to fund infrastructure projects to boost growth. In December, an infrastructure push helped boost economic activity, leading to signs of growth stabilization."
Facebook - "It’s Holocaust Remembrance Day. The Chinese Ambassador to the UN tweeted this, unironically. “History can’t be denied, distorted or forgotten.” In his country, it can. And not just history but the present as well."
Opinion | China’s collapsing birth and marriage rates reflect a people’s deep pessimism - The Washington Post - "China’s nosedive in childbearing is a silent alarm. It signals deep disaffection with the bleak future the regime is engineering for its subjects. In this land without democracy, the birth collapse can be read as a landslide vote of no confidence in President Xi Jinping’s rule... births in China have fallen steeply and steadily since 2016, year after year. In 2022, China had only about half as many births as just six years earlier (9.6 million vs. 17.9 million). That sea change in childbearing predated the coronavirus pandemic, and it appears to be part of broader shock, for marriage in China is also in free fall. Since 2013 — the year Xi completed his ascent to power — the rate of first marriages in China has fallen by well over half. Headlong flights from both childbearing and marriage are taking place in China today. Of course, fertility levels, and marriage rates, are dropping all around the world. But these declines tend to be gradual, occurring across decades. China has been hit by seismic demographic jolts. Birth shocks of this order almost never occur under stable modern governments during peacetime. Swift and sharp fertility crashes instead usually reflect catastrophe: famine, war or other shattering upheavals...
During China’s Mao-era famine, in which tens of millions perished, birth levels fell by less than 40 percent between 1957 (the last year before the Great Leap Forward) and 1961 (the depths of the starvation).
During the chaos of the Soviet collapse, Russian Federation birth levels fell by less than 40 percent between 1988 (the year before the Berlin Wall fell) and 1994 (when male life expectancy fell to a gruesome 57 years).
In Yugoslavia’s hellish breakup and ethnic cleansing, birth levels in Bosnia fell by about 40 percent between 1990 (the last year before Yugoslavia’s breakup) and 1995.
Even Pol Pot, architect of auto-genocide in Cambodia, could not quite manage to force that nation’s birth total down by half during the Khmer Rouge nightmare: According the UNPD, birth levels in Cambodia dropped by 48 percent between 1973 and 1977...
Much of East Asia is beset by super-low fertility — not just China but also Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. But in China, it is occurring under a totalitarian regime exhorting its subjects to provide more issue for the empire. The timing of China’s birth collapse matters: The downward spiral commenced immediately after the Chinese Communist Party suspended decades of coercive birth-control policy... A dictatorship may use bayonets to depress birthrates — but it is much trickier to deploy police state tactics to force birthrates up... we see millions of young people joining spontaneous movements expressing alienation from work — tang ping (lying flat) — and from Chinese society itself — bai lan (let it rot). The Xi regime doesn’t know what to do about this new form of internalized civil disobedience. Last year, during one of the regime’s innumerable, drastic pandemic lockdowns, a video went viral in China before authorities could memory hole it. In the video, faceless hazmat-clad health police try to bully a young man out of his apartment and off to a quarantine camp, even though he has tested negative for the coronavirus. He refuses to leave. “Don’t you understand,” they warn, “if you don’t comply, bad things can happen to your family for three generations.” “Sorry” he replies mildly. “We are the last generation. Thank you.” That moment prompted the spread in China of a despairing social media hashtag: #Lastgeneration."
BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, Zuma’s Moment of Reckoning - "‘At the end of their one month investigation, the WHO team did finally hold a press conference. It lasted for two and a half hours and during that time, they managed to answer five questions. People have never been to a Chinese government organized press conference. This may sound impossible, but the Communist Party are masters at delivering the appearance of accountability via sessions like this. You start with very long opening statements going through the history of why the project was established, and then consecutively translate the whole thing, meaning every long and dreary response must be delivered in both Chinese and English. Then, you only call on a few journalists to speak, answer them in the longest possible ponderous fashion and don't allow any follow up questions.’"
BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, Lebanon’s Lockdown - "‘Since the reform era, China has invested hugely in English learning, making it part of a compulsory education. The Chinese people have also gone to great lengths to master the language. As a result, the country's English proficiency has made a great leap forward, settling eighth among the 20 Asian countries ranked by one survey. In recent years, some have started to question the relevance of English. Two years ago, a heated debate erupted after Hua Qianfang, a farmer turned blogger and writer published a post on the social media Weibo, claiming that English is useless to most Chinese people. He also described those keen English learners as self diminishing slaves of Western ideology. 20,000 netizens shouted their support, while others accused him of being narrow minded and nationalistic. China's rapidly growing economy and the rising position in the world have led to increased nationalism, which in turn have been openly stoked by the authorities. Last spring to legislators even proposed to cancel English translation services and to reduce the number of English lessons at a school in order to promote Chinese... Charles the Great, the Holy Roman Emperor, famously said, to have another language is to have a second soul'"
BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, Hong Kong’s Exodus - "‘The city is seeing a new wave of migration. In a tiny flat on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong, I met a middle class family preparing to leave. They had maps of British cities taped on the walls of their apartment. Afraid of becoming targets of a new national security law, even these middle aged finance specialists hid their identity while speaking to me. When Beijing imposed the national security law in Hong Kong in July 2020, the authorities said it would return stability to the city. Carrie Lam, the city's chief executive said the law would only be used to target the leaders and organizers of the protest movement, which at times paralyzed this financial hub in 2019. But the impact of the law has spread fear and uncertainty across the city. It feels like we are fleeing, not immigrating, the family told me. An estimated 2% of the city has left Hong Kong since the introduction of the new law. People have left the city because of politics before. Many left when Hong Kong was returned to China. Some of those leaving are political activists fleeing arrest, but some are also less politically active. Many families have told me they want to leave. They're worried what the future of Hong Kong holds for their children's generation… Anything is possible now in Hong Kong, one friend told me it feels more dangerous in Hong Kong than Beijing. He said he plans to apply for the British Overseas visa, and one day to relocate to the UK. Some activists compare the number of people leaving the city to the plight of Ugandan Asians, who are forced to leave their country under the dictator Idi Amin in the 1970s... The hope was that Hong Kong would be able to change China. Now it's the other way around’"
From 2021
BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, A Taliban show of force in Afghanistan - "'Tensions escalated after the initial amassing of 200 Chinese vessels when a Philippine civilian boat carrying a local TV crew was chased away by two Chinese navy missile boats. It was the first recorded instance of a Chinese naval boat stalking a Philippine vessel inside the Philippines’ Exclusive Economic waters... curiously strongman Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, infamous for bad mouthing his enemies, hasn't said a word. It's quite a change from his stance in the 2016 election campaign when he said he would ride a jetski to plant the Philippine flag at the Spratly Islands to stake the country's claim to the archipelago. Political analysts will have to wonder whether the governments in Manila and Beijing are growing closer… he feels hurt that the government appears to be favoring China over Filipinos. I feel sad says Mario. The time is getting near where I can say the Philippines has become a province of China.'"
TikTok Owner Had 'Backdoor' for CCP Access to US Data, Lawsuit Alleges - "An explosive new lawsuit claims TikTok owner ByteDance built a "backdoor channel" in its code that allowed Chinese Communist Party members access to user data hosted in the US. The wrongful termination suit, which was filed on Friday in San Francisco Superior Court by Yintao Yu, alleges ByteDance granted special powers to members of a unit of the Chinese Communist Party, or CCP, inside the company, referred to as the "Committee." Yu is a former engineering lead for ByteDance in the US who worked at the company between 2017 and 2018... The suit says the CCP "Committee," which did not work for ByteDance, could monitor its business activities, demote content the unit viewed as unfavorable to China's interests, and even use a "death switch" to turn off Chinese versions of its apps. The complaint alleges the "Committee continued to have access" to US user data even after ByteDance walled off access for individual engineers in China. Specifically, the suit says Yu "saw the backdoor channel in the code, which allows certain high level persons to access user data, no matter where the data is located, even if hosted by a U.S. company with servers located in the U.S. Chinese law requires the company to grant access to user data to the Chinese government." The complaint alleges ByteDance "was aware that if the Chinese government's backdoor was removed from the international/U.S. version of the app, the Chinese government would, it feared, ban the company's valuable Chinese-version apps." TikTok has previously said it doesn't share information with the Chinese government, that US user data is stored in the US and Singapore, and that its content moderation is led by a US-based team that "operates independently from China."... The suit alleges that Yu was fired from the company for his "observation and reporting of illegal conduct."... The complaint also claims the internal CCP group was tasked with helping ByteDance stick to "core Communist values," at times blocking content around events like the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong."
TikTok’s parent company accessed the data of US journalists - "An internal investigation at TikTok parent company ByteDance found that several employees accessed the TikTok data of at least two US journalists and a “small number” of other people connected to them, according to internal emails obtained by The Verge that were first reported by The New York Times. The accessed data includes the reporters’ IP addresses, which were used to see if they had been physically near TikTok employees who were suspected of leaking information to the press... The revelation comes as US lawmakers make moves to restrict TikTok over national security concerns, including banning it from government phones. It also shows ByteDance walking back denials that TikTok has never been used to “target” journalists... Song Ye, ByteDance’s head of audit and risk control who reported to its CEO, has left the company in connection with the investigation and that three other employees have been fired. One of those employees is Chris Lepitak, TikTok’s head of internal audit who reported to Ye... Forbes reported that ByteDance had planned on using TikTok to track the location data of specific US citizens. At the time, the reporter behind the story pointed out that the company admitted to collecting approximate locations using IP addresses. TikTok strongly denied the story, saying that it lacked “rigor and journalistic integrity” and that any employees using the audit system in the way Forbes described would be fired."
TikTok shares your data more than any other social media app: Study - "YouTube and TikTok track users’ personal data more than any other social media apps. The study found that YouTube, which is owned by Google, mostly collects your personal data for its own purposes — like tracking your online search history, or even your location, to serve you relevant ads. But TikTok, which is owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance, mostly allows third-party trackers to collect your data — and from there, it’s hard to say what happens with it. With third-party trackers, it’s essentially impossible to know who’s tracking your data or what information they’re collecting, from which posts you interact with — and how long you spend on each one — to your physical location and any other personal information you share with the app. As the study noted, third-party trackers can track your activity on other sites even after you leave the app."
TikTok chief admits Chinese parent company has access to data - "TikTok’s chief executive has admitted that users' data can be accessed by its Chinese parent company as it battles a potential ban in the United States... Mr Chew, who is based in Singapore, told members of Congress that he had not spoken to a Chinese government official since taking charge two years ago, and that he had “no evidence” that TikTok users’ data had been accessed by the Chinese government. When asked if ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, has been able to spy on staff, he said: ”I don't think that spying is the right way to describe it.” Mr Chew said ByteDance employees in China will not have access to US users’ data by the end of the year, when it will complete a $1.5bn (£1.2bn) plan to move data to IT giant Oracle. The company has not made equivalent promises about UK and European users’ data... China threatened to block a forced sale of the app, saying it would “firmly oppose” the Biden administration’s plan to take the viral video app out of Chinese hands... Mr Chew repeatedly refused to answer questions on whether he agrees that the Chinese government represses China’s Uyghur minority. In response to TikTok being banned from government devices, he said he did not believe any social media apps should be on official phones."
TikTok Creators’ Sensitive Financial Information Stored In China
TikTok Tracked Users Who Watched Gay Content, Prompting Employee Complaints - WSJ - "For at least a year, some employees at TikTok were able to find what they described internally as a list of users who watch gay content on the popular app, a collection of information that sparked worker complaints, according to former TikTok employees. TikTok doesn’t ask users to disclose their sexual orientation, but it cataloged videos users watched under topics such as LGBT, short for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, the former employees said. The collection of information, which could be viewed by some employees through a dashboard, included a set of affiliated users who watched those videos, and their ID numbers... Former TikTok employees who have worked elsewhere in the tech industry say the dashboard that provided access to view the data was accessible to more workers than is common at other tech platforms. Employees in China also had access to the data, and at times controlled the permissions for who could view the information, according to the former employees."
I saw some people pretending that this was exactly the same as algorithms pushing relevant content to people. Do they even read stories before commenting on them?
WELCH: TikTok's War on the West, And Why We're Still Losing It. - "while Western governments fumbled around to weaponize the internet against the public, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has already perfected the art, with its TikTok app serving a means to atomise generations of Westerners... The creators and engineers working on TikTok’s algorithm are instructed to promote all things degenerate and immoral on the app. The Chinese version of TikTok, called Douyin, also owned by Bytedance, promotes engineers, scientists, adventurers and members of the Chinese public working hard to achieve their dreams. Whereas the Western version promotes baseless political ideas, and soft pornography by way of half-naked girls and boys dancing suggestively. The Western version glorifies mental illnesses and emotional instability, all the while celebrating violence, crime, and instant self-gratification. The ultimate goal of the Chinese government is that of total corruption and atomisation of Westerners, by dumbing down the content that they receive, attacking their ability to concentrate and assume self-control, as well as promoting pernicious and iniquitous ideas and beliefs amongst the youth of rival countries. Such an effort would have been inconceivable ten years ago. Yet now, parents are allowing their children to be corrupted by a hostile, megalomaniacal foreign government hellbent on capturing their attention and pacifying them through endless scrolling – if the parents aren’t themselves consumed by TikTok, that is. And for some unbeknownst reason, there’s little effort or resolve to remove the app or to recognise it as a true threat to western stability and health... There’s plenty of concern about Andrew Tate and his effects on young boys, however. But how do people think he became such a sensation last year? He figured out a way to utilise the algorithm on TikTok for his benefit. Yet no one raises these concerns about the app itself."
(PDF) Chinese TikTok (Douyin) Challenges and Body Image Concerns: A Pilot Study
How Luxury Fashion Brands Approach Douyin Marketing in China
Costume Changes on the Subway is China's Latest Crazy TikTok Challenge
Cute Asian Girl Shows Her Wet Pussy on Chinese TikTok Version Douyin hot sexy adult video
Why you shouldn’t use Douyin (“the Chinese TikTok”) to improve your Mandarin - "What makes Douyin so popular in China? One thing works really well: Douyin’s self-learning algorithm “personalizes” your feed. It does so based on your viewing behavior (interaction, viewing time etc.). It adapts almost immediately. The more you engage with the app, the more it’ll show that kind of content Douyin thinks you want to see. That’s why when my friend from Russia opens his app, he only sees half-naked women dancing around."
I keep seeing this conspiracy theory. But it is contradicted by what actually happens on Douyin
Chinese livestreamers flock outdoors for late-night tips - "In the dead of night on a bridge in southern China, around two dozen livestreamers sat crooning and chatting into microphones, their identical ring lights spaced a few metres apart in glowing rows. The broadcasters gather in spots like this in the city of Guilin most nights with the hopes of catching the attention of online “passers-by” scrolling through livestreams on Douyin... “There are too many indoor livestreamers,” said 27-year-old Qiao Ya, who works from 9:00 pm to 3:00 am every night. “For indoor livestreaming you need to look pretty to be able to attract viewers, but I’m too average for that.” Outdoor broadcasting took off about a year ago, and conditions can be harsh. When AFP visited this week, the temperature had dropped to almost zero degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit), with streamers bundled in thick blankets and some bringing small heaters. “Viewers might feel if we’re outdoors or just by ourselves late at night that it’s very tough, so they might be nicer to us,” said Qiao, whose only income comes from donations through her stream. Livestreaming on apps like Douyin, which said it had 600 million users in 2020, is a popular way to make money in China... On a good day, Qiao makes up to 600 yuan (US$87) over eight hours of streaming. On a bad day, her takings can be as low as 10 yuan (US$1.50). Like most Douyin performers, Qiao is signed with a livestreamer talent agency, which takes a 10 percent cut of her revenue in exchange for equipment rental and management of her social media presence. Douyin takes another 50 percent, leaving streamers like Qiao with just 40 percent of what they make... Most of the streamers on the bridge on Monday were young women, with one of the few men wearing a furry frog suit... ouyin issued a warning against public disturbances caused by outdoor livestreaming, though that has largely gone unheeded after an initial crackdown. Zhang said sometimes people walking past react angrily to her. “Some look at us with some discrimination. They ask ‘Why don’t you find a normal job?'” she said... Despite the risks, big donations keep livestreamers like Qiao coming back. “One guy scrolled past my roadside livestream one night at 2:20 am and felt very touched,” Qiao said. The anonymous man gave her a 3,000 yuan (US$435) donation."
Damn TikTok, destroying the West with its algorithmns!
'Winnie the Pooh' movie pulled from theatres in Hong Kong - "Public screenings of a slasher film that features Winnie the Pooh were scrapped abruptly in Hong Kong on Tuesday, sparking discussions over increasing censorship in the city. Film distributor VII Pillars Entertainment announced on Facebook that the release of "Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey" on Thursday had been canceled with "great regret" in Hong Kong and neighboring Macao. In an email reply to The Associated Press, the distributor said it was notified by cinemas that they could not show the film as scheduled, but it had no idea about the reasons behind it. The cinema chains involved did not immediately reply to a request for comment. For many residents, the Winnie the Pooh character is a playful taunt of China's President Xi Jinping, and Chinese censors in the past had briefly banned social media searches for the bear in the country. In 2018, film "Christopher Robin" also featuring Winnie the Pooh was reportedly denied a release in China... In 2021, the government tightened guidelines and authorised censors to ban films believed to have breached the sweeping law. Ng said the city saw more cases of censorship over the last two years but mostly targeting non-commercial movies, such as independent short films."
‘Monster Hunter’ Pulled From Chinese Cinemas Over Scene Said to Be Racial Slur - "Chinese regulators are in the midst of censoring the Hollywood title “Monster Hunter” after controversy broke out online on opening day over a ten second-long exchange in the film that patriotic local viewers say “insults China.”... In the scene, a white male character and an Asian character played by Jin are driving together at high speed. “What?” says the former. “Look at my knees!” shouts Jin. “What kind of knees are these?” asks his companion. “Chi-nese!” jokes Jin, punning on the word’s last syllable. Though some might view this as camaraderie and banter over a bad pun, Chinese viewers were incensed after the exchange was interpreted as a reference to an old, racist schoolyard rhyme insulting Asians. “Chi-nese, Jap-a-nese, dir-ty knees, look at these,” it apparently sing-songs, accompanied by knee slaps and slant-eyed gestures."
From 2020
Meme - China: "We're banning Google, Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter... Haha!"
Normal person: "Okay."
Normal person: "We're banning TikTok."
China: "You cannot do that! That's racist, sinophobe, anti-Asian, US Imperialism! You're just jealous of us!"
Analysis: Xi, not Trump, started on path to decoupling - Nikkei Asia - ""It was Xi Jinping who made the first crucial statement that led to the separation of the U.S. and Chinese economies," said a retired party veteran, noting this happened just before he ascended to the Chinese Communist Party's top leader. The fact that Xi has stayed true to his original instincts shows that he is a strong-willed politician who follows through on his original intentions. Whether that is a good thing or not for the Chinese economy, is another debate. It all started around the party's 18th national congress, held in November 2012. For context, the national congress was delayed significantly due to the political turmoil over former top Chongqing official Bo Xilai. During the quinquennial event, Xi, the leader in waiting, raised concern that the Chinese economy was being "hijacked" by the U.S. As leader, he was determined to correct the situation. Xi's statements were behind closed doors and not publicized. But with 3,000 delegates attending the national congress, it had many people talking about it. At the time, however, people in China did not realize that Xi's intentions would have massive consequences for China's economy and society later on. It was in the era of President Hu Jintao -- and unlike now -- unfettered discussions were still possible, as long as they were held only within the party. Thus Xi's remark about the Chinese economy being "hijacked" became widely known, sources said. At the heart of Xi's frustration was former paramount leader Deng Xiaoping... From Xi's perspective, U.S. companies were operating freely in the Chinese market and making huge profits. China's group of private companies, too, were doing business at home and abroad, outside the party's control. The conclusion was drawn that unless these issues were all corrected, the country's one-party rule was at risk. The attempt to terminate the hijacking led to a drastic reversal of Deng's policies. It was no longer going to be about cooperation and closer economic relations with the U.S. While the path to decoupling was not clear back in 2012, in retrospect, Xi's inner circle was beginning to consider reducing China's economic dependence on the U.S... Xi's prescriptions for tackling U.S. dependence has always been zi li geng sheng, self-reliance. He has also tried "dual circulation" -- an economic policy that seeks to reduce the role of foreign trade in driving the Chinese economy. But whatever Xi's visions for an ideal Chinese economy were, the reality was that the Chinese economy, being so dependent on the outside world, was not going to function properly if self-reliance was the guiding philosophy... To some extent, Xi has got what he wanted. The U.S. is probably not hijacking the Chinese economy today. But it has also become difficult for Chinese companies -- both state-owned and private -- to expand operations around the world without restrictions. This has become a drag on Chinese economic growth. In the 11 years under Xi, the fundamental principle that moves China has changed. The party's political logic takes precedence over any logic of economic freedom. The economy is but a tool to complement Communist-led politics. One question to ask is: What if the policy is fundamentally wrong in terms of improving people's livelihoods? Xi has already acquired ultimate power, and those around him are all his close aides. There is no one who can fundamentally correct the basic policy that the top leader has pushed ahead for political reasons. Even Premier Li Qiang, who is ranked second after Xi in the party hierarchy and is in charge of the economy, is no exception... a veteran male employee of Astellas Pharma, a major Japanese drugmaker, was detained by Chinese authorities immediately before he was due to return to Japan from Beijing. He has worked in China for more than 20 years. The Astellas detention is beginning to seriously impact Japanese companies operating in China. The owner of a small-to-medium-sized Japanese company operating in China, told Nikkei on condition of anonymity, that they are moving production from China's Zhejiang province to Vietnam. "We were already shifting away and away from China. Everything is more expensive and there are political risks. The Astellas detention will only accelerate this trend.""
China urges jobless graduates to ‘roll up their sleeves’ and try manual work | Financial Times - "China is shifting the blame for soaring youth unemployment on to jobless university graduates, accusing them of refusing to put aside their professional ambitions and take on manual labour. In recent weeks, state broadcasters and news agencies have published more than a dozen profiles of recent university graduates who allegedly made a fortune in low-skilled jobs such as selling street food or growing fruit, rather than pursuing a career in their area of study. The Communist Youth League last month criticised young graduates for holding on to their professional aspirations, accusing them of refusing to “tighten screws in factories” and exhorting the current generation to “take off their suits, roll up their sleeves and go to the farmland”. But the government’s narrative has drawn scorn on social media, with unemployed graduates criticising authorities for failing to create enough jobs for the growing ranks of well-educated youth. A much-liked WeChat retort to the Communist Youth League was to ask if its author was “willing to give up your current position and salary to become a cleaner”. The backlash underscores growing public anger over a lack of social mobility in China, where coronavirus controls and a sweeping crackdown on the private sector have weighed on the world’s second-largest economy, further entrenching inequality. While China’s economic recovery has begun to gain momentum, with growth rebounding to 4.5 per cent in the first quarter after pandemic restrictions were scrapped early this year, youth unemployment has remained a persistent area of pain. Young job hunters were hit particularly hard by lockdowns, and many are still struggling. Unemployment in March among those aged 16 to 24 reached 19.6 per cent — the second-highest level on record — and has now stood above 16 per cent for a full year. By contrast, the country’s broader jobless rate has hovered at about 5 per cent. The swelling ranks of jobless youth also represent a looming demographic challenge for Chinese policymakers. The country’s population is entering decline for the first time in six decades and is set to be overtaken by India’s, just as concerns mount about a structural slowdown in economic growth. Today’s graduates will be responsible for supporting their ageing parents, a cohort that outnumbers China’s youth after decades of strict family planning policies, while facing limited professional prospects and opportunities to start accumulating wealth. “Investing in education no longer guarantees a high return,” said Ming Xia, a political-science professor at the City University of New York. “That has undermined the basic idea of how ordinary people could climb the social ladder.” The situation shows little signs of easing, as a record 11.6mn college graduates are expected to enter the already tight labour market this year. A survey last November of 100 China-based employers by 51job, a job listings website, found that more than half of respondents planned to reduce hiring in 2023."
