But they also reflect another source of tension that worries Beijing: growing economic frustration among China’s younger generation.
Rare public displays of discontent, which included protests on university campuses, have come as authorities struggle to keep a floor under the economy, which is on track to expand this year at its slowest pace in more than four decades , except for 2020, the year when covid first hit.
The outlook for young Chinese is particularly dismal. The official unemployment rate for urban youth between the ages of 16 and 24 is around 18%, near an all-time high.
More than 11.58 million students, a record, will graduate next summer. Yet many jobs for young people and college graduates—especially in China’s internet, education and service sectors—have disappeared over the past year due to COVID controls on private companies and government regulatory action.
In Shanghai, some protesters shouted on Saturday night, “We haven’t had a job for three years!” , “Fresh Graduate Anti-Anxiety Group,” in which they share complaints about the job market.
“When growth slows and people have less money and a less bright future, they are less willing to put up with other problems,” said Nancy Qian, an economics professor at Northwestern University.
Such frustrations heighten the urgency for Xi Jinping and other Chinese leaders to restart growth soon, lest concerns turn into more unrest. But recovering the economy will be difficult at a time when global demand for sugar exports is weakening—especially if Covid cases spread across China this winter, as many experts predict.
“What’s really dangerous for Xi is if people start to question his ability to lead,” said Mark Williams, chief Asia economist at Capital Economics. ,
China’s State Council Information Office, which handles foreign media inquiries, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Youth with economic grievances have long been a concern for China’s ruling Communist Party, which carried out a bloody crackdown on student protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Economists widely consider inflation as a major factor, which rose 18% that year. disturbance.
The current protests began as a memorial for those who died in the Urumqi fire last week and quickly turned into a criticism of China’s COVID policy, and the way it has disrupted people’s lives. Including forced quarantine.
Other concerns have also come up. On Sunday, hundreds of students from Tsinghua University, an elite school in Beijing, marched on campus chanting “democracy and the rule of law!” asked Mr. Xi to step down.
Nevertheless, economic concerns have formed a backdrop for the protests. While some of China’s growth slowdown this year was due to factors beyond Beijing’s control, much of the weakness stemmed from policy decisions made by Beijing, making Chinese leaders an easy target for the anger of young people.
The government’s drive to contain Covid resulted in repeated lockdowns, which reduced corporate earnings, reduced consumer spending, and raised the cost of goods due to logistical glitches.
At the same time, there were massive layoffs and government efforts to purge excess debt from the property market and hinder investment by risk-taking private companies. To the dismay of many youngsters, the government’s tightening of the property market so far has not brought prices down to affordable levels in many places, even as it has unsettled some developers.
China’s GDP is expected to grow by about 3% this year, only a notch above 2.2% growth in 2020 when the pandemic first hit Wuhan.
China’s top leaders have repeatedly said they want to stabilize the job market. He has used government stimulus and other tactics to reduce headline unemployment across all age groups from 6.1% in April to 5.5% in October.
However, economists say labor market pressures for young Chinese are likely to remain. Whenever growth slows in China, the pressure sometimes falls on those trying to enter the job market, economists say, as some companies prefer to retain more experienced workers, and Others put off hiring because of the uncertain outlook.
Frequent Covid testing and lockdown have also put many service providers like restaurants and travel agencies out of business, which act as major employers for young people.
Dire market conditions have led many people to try to avoid entering the job market.
In Hangzhou, Jiang Lin, a graduate student in accounting, said her parents pressured her to apply for graduate studies this year. More than 5.4 million people registered for the exam to enter graduate schools next year, a record high and nearly double the 2.9 million applicants in 2019.
“But I’m not sure it will be easy for me to get a job in two years,” she said.
Jiang Huiwen, a third-year graduate student in philosophy at a university in Beijing, put off applying for further studies because of what she described as an overabundance of people with doctoral degrees. This fall, she spent three months job hunting and sent out more than 80 copies of her resume, receiving only one offer to work as an intern at an autonomous vehicle company.
She is planning to quit next month, seeing little chance of getting a permanent position.
“When reality doesn’t match expectations, it’s hard not to be in recession,” said Ms. Jiang, 23, who estimates she has spent an average of about two months each year under lockdown over the past three years.
Unlike their parents, Chinese 20-somethings grew up in two decades of prosperity and largely believed their efforts in school would pay off, said Ms Qian of Northwestern University. With growth slowing so much this year, the lack of visible payments has “added to an accumulation of frustration and anger.”
Vivian Wei, 24, studying literature at a university in Shanghai, is looking for an entry-level editing job in her hometown in southern China, as she struggles with her ability to afford rent and overall living costs in Shanghai. worried about.
“I’ve heard from other students that this is the most difficult year when it comes to finding a job,” she said. “I’ve given up for now.”
The Urumqi fire and protests over the weekend stirred it. She said that she could not stop reading about the protests of the last three days, even though she did not dare to join them.
“Individual interests will be sacrificed in the face of a powerful state apparatus,” Ms. Wei said.