In a significant shift reflecting China’s changing economic landscape, several Chinese universities are discontinuing their civil engineering and architecture programs. This move comes as the country grapples with an ongoing real estate crisis, dramatically altering the job prospects for graduates in these fields.

Once considered a golden ticket to stable employment, civil engineering degrees are now being labeled as “pit” programs by netizens. The real estate sector, long a major employer for these graduates, has seen its boom days come to an end, leaving many students scrambling to transfer out of these programs.

Prominent institutions such as Shandong University, China University of Petroleum, and Beihang University have announced plans to close multiple undergraduate and graduate programs related to civil engineering and architecture. Statistics from universities like Hunan University and Changsha University of Science and Technology reveal a mass exodus of students from these departments, with dozens to over a hundred students transferring out annually.

In response to dwindling enrollment, some universities are adapting their strategies. Southeast University, ranked second nationally in architecture, has opened its doors to liberal arts students for its architecture program. Meanwhile, many institutions have quietly removed civil engineering majors from their admission catalogs.

Interestingly, as traditional programs decline, a new trend is emerging. “Smart construction” and related fields are gaining traction, with 153 universities now offering such majors – more than double the number from three years ago. However, some students report that these new programs are essentially rebranded civil engineering courses with added computer classes, hoping for a genuine shift towards smart technologies in the future.

As China’s education sector adjusts to economic realities, the transformation of these once-popular majors serves as a stark indicator of the broader changes sweeping through the country’s job market and economy.

Source: Central News Agency (Taiwan), September 15, 2024
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202409150056.aspx

In a landmark move, China’s State Council presented its inaugural report on government debt management to the National People’s Congress (NPC) on January 10, 2024. Finance Minister Lan Fo’an, speaking on behalf of the State Council, disclosed that China’s statutory government debt surpassed 70 trillion yuan ($9.8 trillion) by the end of 2023.

The report, a significant step towards fiscal transparency, revealed a total government statutory debt balance of 70.77 trillion yuan ($9.91 trillion). This figure comprises 30.03 trillion yuan ($4.20 trillion) in national debt and a staggering 40.74 trillion yuan ($5.70 trillion) in local government debt, indicating that local obligations outweigh central government debt.

Based on China’s 2023 GDP of 126.06 trillion yuan ($17.65 trillion), the government debt-to-GDP ratio stands at 56.1%. The national debt is primarily domestic, with 29.70 trillion yuan ($4.16 trillion) in internal debt and 334.6 billion yuan ($46.84 billion) in foreign debt. Local government debt is split between 15.87 trillion yuan ($2.22 trillion) in general debt and 24.87 trillion yuan ($3.48 trillion) in special purpose debt.

The State Council outlined five key areas for strengthening debt management, including scientific determination of debt size and structure, reforms in national debt management, improved local government bond oversight, enhanced supervision processes, and increased cooperation with NPC oversight mechanisms.

Source: Central News Agency (Taiwan), September 15, 2024
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202409150091.aspx

Radio France Internationale (RFI) Chinese Edition recently reported that China’s steel output fell more than 10 percent in August from a year earlier. The fall was due to low steel prices and a slump in demand. China’s steel industry, which is the largest in the world, has not seen such low levels of output since 2017.

Major supplier China’s Baowu Steel Group warned that the situation may become increasingly dire. As Chinese steel mills’ losses continue to grow for every ton of steel they produce, more and more mills are choosing to shut down their furnaces. According to China’s National Bureau of Statistics, Crude steel production fell to 77.9 million tons in August, down 10.4 percent year-over-year.

The country’s decline in demand for steel comes after more than two decades of rapid industrialization and urbanization. Demand has been affected by a continuing slump in construction activity in China this year, especially during the summer. China’s economic woes, from a battered real estate market to weakening consumer confidence, are also weighing on the demand.

Source: RFI Chinese, September 14, 2024
https://tinyurl.com/yum6hw66

Since the beginning of August there have been more than 1,100 official resignations tendered by executives at companies with listed A-shares on the Chinese stock markets.

The financial industry accounts for a particularly large proportion of the resignations seen in the current wave, with many bank executives stepping down. This includes Liu Jin, Vice Chairman, who was the Bank of China’s Executive Director, President, and a Member of the Strategic Development Committee of the Board of Directors. Since the beginning of 2024, almost all senior executives positions at the top six state-owned national banks have undergone personnel changes. Moreover, the current trend has seen not only turnover in senior management positions but also among regular employees in the banking industry. According to Wind Statistics, in the first half of 2024, the country’s 42 mainstream banks saw a decrease in headcount of about 60,000 compared with the same period last year.

Like banks, asset management companies in China have performed relatively poorly in recent years. Compared with the wave of resignations in the banking sector, resignations in the securities industry has been relatively more correlated with age. The largest shareholders of China’s leading securities companies are mostly state-owned assets, and these companies have adopted a model of leadership associated with state ownership.

Although most executives who resigned in the recent wave cited personal reasons for stepping down, it cannot be ruled out that many stepped down out of concern that they might take the blame if their companies’ current poor economic performance were to continue. That being said, for an executive to resign would not necessarily provide him or her with full reputational protection.

Source: JRJ, September 11, 2024
https://stock.jrj.com.cn/2024/09/11100143171400.shtml