To clarify, I don’t believe in the surface level propaganda thrown in China’s way about “1984 dystopian society,” “Mao killed 60 million people,” “Xinjiang concentration camps” or things like that.

I’m curious about a few negative factors of China that have become widespread knowledge over the past decade or so by even the politically literate audience, and I want to learn how accurate these things are, how prevalent they are in today’s society in China, and how much it would impact the day to day life of someone living in China.

  1. Quality control, I have read stories about Chinese factories producing guns, steel, industrial goods, consumer goods, food products, far below acceptable or safe standards, leading to construction/infrastructure failure and severe health complications. There are also claims that smaller restaurants in China today still sometimes use very low quality ingredients that can result in serious health issues. How much of an issue is this?

  2. Population issue. The Chinese population trend is going in a unfavorable direction right now, and there are reports of young people not wanting to have children because of cultural and cost reasons. How much of an issue is this, and will China end up like Korea and Japan in another decade or two?

  3. Unemployment, it is a fact right now that Chinese people have a 20% unemployment issue due to an abundance of university graduates without sufficient jobs to match this supply. And this has caused internal competition to swell to unreasonable standards leading some people to straight up give up on their careers and become full time neets. Are there any positive trends or actions to resolve this issue?

  4. Education. The education system sounds terrifying in China right now, children as young as elementary schoolers having to sleep only 6 hours a night to finish their homework from school and tutoring services. I have also read that after the government banned tutoring of core classroom subjects, illegal tutoring services have become a thing. I would laugh at how this would be the most asian issue ever if I wasn’t so horrified by the situation. Is there any government effort to resolve this right now?

  5. Nepotism. From what I have heard and read, using connections to obtain positions and resources in China is still very common. How bad is this, and are there any reforms or policies tackling it?

  6. Mannerisms and emotional intelligence of the average person. There are frequent complaints about Chinese people being horrible tourists, being extremely rude, having the emotional maturity of a donut until at least the age of 30, and also taking advantage of anything free to disgusting levels (I have personally seen old Chinese ladies take out a container and fill it with ketchup from a restaurant where the condiments are self served). I understand the reasoning behind this, China in it’s current iteration is a relatively new country, and the education received by different generations varies massively in quality, with only really Gen Z on average obtaining a level of education that is on par with western populations. I just want to ask how bad this is in day to day life, and if it is tolerable.

Thanks for reading my somewhat long post, I’d appreciate any response, you don’t have to respond to all of my points, any point would be fine. I want to have a positive impression of China but these points are really bugging me right now.

    • @[email protected]
      4•1 year ago

      That explain a lot. Lots of western analysts seem to be making a big deal of the number. As other comment stated, would be nice to see a more detailed distribution, though.

      On a different but related topic, getting info from a liberal associate of mine that, to quote, “China will no longer publish data on the country’s youth unemployment rate.”, citing this tweet I’ve screenshoted below.

      Can you provide further context, explanation, or correction regarding this? Thanks in advance.

      • @[email protected]
        6•1 year ago

        Yes this is just in today (Chinese text): http://www.stats.gov.cn/sj/sjjd/202308/t20230815_1942020.html

        However, the proper wording is “suspend publishing” and not “no longer publish”.

        自今年8月份开始，全国青年人等分年龄段的城镇调查失业率将暂停发布，主要原因是：经济社会在不断发展变化，统计工作需要不断完善，劳动力调查统计也需要进一步健全优化。比如，近年来，我国城镇青年人中，在校学生规模不断扩大。2022年，我国16-24岁城镇青年有9600多万人，其中在校学生达到6500多万人。在校学生的主要任务是学习，毕业前寻找工作的学生是否应纳入劳动力调查统计，社会各方面有不同的看法，需要进一步研究。再比如，随着我国居民受教育水平提高，青年人在校学习时间增加。在劳动力调查统计中，对于青年人年龄范围的界定，也需要进一步研究。

        (DeepL translation) Since August this year, the release of the age-specific urban survey unemployment rate for young people across the country will be suspended, mainly for the following reasons: the economy and society are constantly developing and changing, statistics need to be constantly improved, and labour force surveys and statistics also need to be further improved and optimized. For example, in recent years, among China’s urban young people, the scale of school students has been expanding. 2022, China’s urban young people aged 16-24 had more than 96 million people, of which more than 65 million were school students. The main task of school students is to study. Whether students looking for jobs before graduation should be included in the labor force survey statistics, there are different views from various aspects of the society, which need to be further studied. Another example is that, as the education level of China’s residents rises, young people are spending more time in school. The definition of the age range of young people in labor force surveys and statistics also requires further study.

    • @[email protected]OP
      2•1 year ago

      Yeah that was the consensus I obtained from reading western news sources on the issue. I understand now reporting the unemployment rate of people still in school age is pretty disingenuous. However like my response to an above comment, I want to ask is there statistics showing the distribution of where the unemployment comes from in this 16-24 age range? I’m specifically interested in the 22-24 age range as that would be the average new-grad, and this would paint a much more interesting picture to analyze.

      • @[email protected]
        3•1 year ago

        I don’t think there are released statistics on the exact distribution, but the economists who managed to turn “20% unemployment” into 50% had some ways of estimating by comparing the population of people around the ages of 16 to 24 and the number of people still in school.