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CNA: Employment Rate of Shanghai College Graduates is 32 Percent

Primary Taiwanese news agency Central News Agency (CNA) recently reported that China’s employment situation is grim, and college students are frequently found unable to get a job. Lates statistics showed that in Shanghai, China’s most prosperous city, the current average employment rate of fresh graduates from colleges and universities is only 32.8 percent. According to government official announcement, the number of college graduates in Shanghai this year reached 236,000, a record high. On March 16, the Shanghai authorities launched the spring employment promotion campaign, and intensively held employment and internship job fairs. Many Chinese netizens called the employment status of this year’s fresh graduates “disastrous.” A netizen said that 20 out of 30 people around him were preparing the entrance exams for civil servants. Last year’s data showed that, even the top universities in Shanghai are facing challenging employment situation for their students. Shanghai Jiaotong University, which ranks first in science and engineering, has a rate of only 65 percent among fresh graduates who obtained employment agreements. Fudan University, the strongest in literature category, had more than 65 percent of graduates last year going on to further studies, 21.42 percent were employed, and 13.8 percent were unemployed. Some observers expressed the belief that, this is the reality of college students. There is really no good place to go in the society. China’s industrial upgrade has failed.

Source: CNA, April 15, 2023
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202304150200.aspx

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources Social Stability

Chinese Schools and Kindergartens Close Down as Birth Rate Drops

China’s Primary Schools Dropped by 80,000 in 10 Years. According to data recently released by China’s Ministry of Education, there were 149,100 primary schools in 2022, compared to 229,000 in 2012, a decline of 79,900 or 35 percent.

The chances of any improvement seem slim. In 2022, there were 289,200 kindergartens in China, a decrease of about 5,600 compared with the previous year.

Behind the decline in the number of kindergartens and primary schools in China is the sharp drop in the number of newborns.

According to data released by the CCP this year, there were 9.56 million newborns in China in 2022, with a birth rate of only 6.77‰ and a natural growth rate of -0.60 percent. This is the first time since 1950 that the annual birth population has fallen below 10 million. CCP data show that China had 10.62 million newborns in 2021, 12.02 million in 2020, and 14.65 million in 2019.

According to the “China Statistical Yearbook 2022,” 13 of the 31 provinces and municipalities directly under the Chinese central government had negative population growth, namely: Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Hubei, Hunan, Chongqing, and Sichuan.

Analysts observed that China has a history of not releasing actual figures, but one can see a trend from the statistics it does release.

Source: Epoch Times, April 5, 2023
https://www.epochtimes.com/b5/23/4/5/n13965673.htm

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources Social Stability

SARS Whistleblower Died; the Authorities Banned Public Mourning

Jiang Yanyong, a retired Chinese military doctor known as the “whistleblower” of the 2003 SARS epidemic, died Saturday at the age of 91 at the People’s Liberation Army General Hospital in Beijing (also known as the 301 Hospital)  after he had contracted pneumonia and other illnesses that led to heart and lung failure.

A friend of Jiang Yangyong in Beijing told Radio Free Asia that the authorities had told Jiang’s family to keep his funeral low-key. “No public funeral, no public mourning or flower baskets, and no media interviews.” Wreaths or elegiac couplets must be given to Jiang’s wife, who will then submit them to the authorities for approval. The bureau has even written a eulogy for him.

Because of his exposure of the SARS epidemic in China in 2003, as well as his call for the authorities to correct the name of the 1989 student movement, from 2003 until the end of his life, Jiang’s personal freedom was constantly restricted . He also publicized his experience of saving the lives of students who were shot during the 1989 Tiananmen massacre.

During the 2019 sessions of the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), Jiang wrote letters to Chinese President Xi Jinping and the NPC, asking them to redress the 1989 student movement.

The friend said that after writing the letters in 2019, Jiang was again placed under house arrest. “He was checked and not allowed to see outsiders. We couldn’t even see him, and his home phone was cut off. Even his son couldn’t contact him. Dr. Jiang was mentally hurt and his mood was negative. He suffered from Alzheimers in his later years. He wanted to go out to see a doctor, but the guards would not let him. Recently he contracted pneumonia and was admitted to the 301 Hospital.”

Source: Radio Free Asia, March 14, 2023
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/huanjing/gt2-03142023045039.html

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

China’s Migrant Workers Return to Their Hometowns

China’s economic situation has continued to deteriorate. After the Chinese New Year, many migrant workers (peasants who go to work in the cities) came back to the cities. Surprisingly, they found that there were no jobs waiting for them. Even if there were jobs, the pay would have been too low. Thus many of them decided to return to their hometowns.

However, these migrant workers no longer have the traditional sense of peasants. They are used to an urban life and are not accustomed to farmland work anymore. The urban experiences gave them the knowledge and courage to defend their rights. Thus they could stand up when facing unfair treatment in the villages and potentially shake the CCP’s grassroots level control.

Source: Creaders.net, February 26, 2023
https://news.creaders.net/china/2023/02/26/2581647.html

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources Social Stability

RTI: Zero-Covid Government PR Content Disappeared from Chinese Search Engine

Radio Taiwan International (RTI) recently reported that Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping set the tone at the Politburo Standing Committee held recently, when he pointed out, “China has achieved a decisive victory in the three-year fight against Covid-19, creating a miracle in the history of human civilization.” During the pandemic period, the Chinese government vigorously promoted slogans such as “Insist on the unshakable Zero-Covid policy.” However, some Chinese netizens discovered that, those pictures of the slogans have mysteriously and swiftly disappeared in Baidu search results. The official celebration of the success performed in the Standing Committee meeting kept silent about the “master policy” of Zero-Covid as well. If the Communist Party has achieved a miracle in fighting the pandemic, how could this miracle be achieved without the guidance of the master policy? The fact is that, Zero-Covid caused a huge humanitarian disaster in China, because its basic means are isolation, blockade, city closure, district closure, and even province closure. People also found that, the shelter hospitals and countless Covid testing stations that played an important role in creating these “miracles” were also instantly abandoned. Baidu is China’s largest search engine and Google is banned in China. Without political intervention or orders “from above,” do tech companies like Baidu have the guts to remove the traces of government’s master policy which led to a major success? What is the reason for clearing these government promotional images from China’s domestic Internet?

Source: RTI, February 20, 2023
https://www.rti.org.tw/news/view/id/2159664

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics Social Stability

Public Opinion: How Can a County Executive’s Family Pay a 10M Yuan Ransom?

Some hot news spread on the Internet on February 10. It was about the ransom of a former county Communist Party Secretary (the highest-ranked official in the county). Huang Dongming,the  former Teng County Party Secretary of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, was kidnapped. The kidnappers asked for 30 million yuan (US$4.31 million) in ransom. Huang’s family paid 10 million yuan, but the kidnappers refused to release Huang. Then the family reported the kidnapping to the police who were able to rescue the hostage.

The public focus was on how Huang’s family could afford to pay 10 million yuan. Teng county is a very poor county in China and, on the surface, the officials’ salary is not high at all. Many commentators took it as indication that, in the past, Huang had collected a large amount of illegal money.

Also, several Chinese media reported on February 7 that Zhang Enliang, the former Hegang City Party Secretary in Heilongjiang Province, was accused of taking a bribe of 73 million yuan.

Official corruption is a severe problem in China that the authorities are unable to fix.

Source: Radio Free Asia, February 10, 2023
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/Xinwen/5-02102023122403.html

Hot Topics | | |   @CS Government/Politics Social Stability

Around 10,000 Wuhan Retirees Took to the Streets

On February 8, around 10,000 retirees in Wuhan City, Hubei Province gathered at the municipal building to protest the city’s newly published “Employee Medical Reform” plan.

The plan, effective on February 1, will significantly cut the medical insurance benefits of Wuhan’s 2 million retirees. In the past, the government paid each retiree 286 yuan per month for medical spending , but the new plan only pays 83 yuan, a 70 percent cut. The new plan adds a 500 yuan deductible before any insurance payout. It appears that each person can be reimbursed 4,000 yuan a year, but the reality is only 1,300 yuan. Moreover, many medicines are no longer covered by the insurance.

A WeChat discussion showed that people have demanded that the Wuhan Mayor fix the issue by February 8; otherwise they will hold a large gathering on February 15. If there is no resolution by the end of the month, the retirees will demand that the mayor be impeached.

Police came to the site, but didn’t crack down on the protest. There are unofficial reports that the mayor met with the protesters in the afternoon and later on the city put the new plan on hold.

Source: Aboluo, February 8, 2023
https://www.aboluowang.com/2023/0208/1864549.html

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources Government/Politics Social Stability

China’s Marriage Registration Declined for Eight Consecutive Years

Well-known Chinese news site Sina (NASDQ: SINA) recently reported that, in 2021, the number of marriage registrations in China dropped to 7.636 million couples. This meant there had been a decline for eight consecutive years. In addition, the age of each first marriage has been significantly delayed. In 2021, the average age of the first marriage of those in Anhui Province was 31.89 years old for males and 30.73 years old for females. The reasons for the decline in the number of marriages are: first, the decline in the number of young people, second, there are more men and fewer women in the marriageable population, third is the high cost of raising children, fourth is the high cost of marriage, fifth is fierce social competition and employment pressure, and lastly, the younger generation’s perception of marriage has changed. Economists suggested the following to tackle the situation. First, increase the supply of residential land in big cities and provide housing subsidies for families with children; second,reduce the costs of childbirth, childcare, and education; third, establish a social support system that is gender-equal and child-friendly; fourth, relax the conditions for adoption and placement; fifth, lower the legal age of marriage to 18; and sixth, protect single women’s reproductive rights. The suggestion of lowering the legal age of marriage to 18 years old resulted in intense discussions and controversies online, and one time even ranked at the top of the national hot search. Currently, the legal age of marriage in China is 22 for men and 20 for women. It is lower than Japan, the U.S., India, Germany, France, Canada, and even Mexico. The ultra-low birth rate and the rapid shrinkage of the young population have become major challenges facing Chinese society.

Source: Sina, February 8, 2023
https://finance.sina.com.cn/money/smjj/smdt/2023-02-08/doc-imyeyxpn6454987.shtml?cref=cj

Briefings | | |   Social Stability