China Youths Swap City Dreams for Country Living as Jobs Crisis Mounts
4 Dec 2023
Bloomberg News
Full content link : https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-12-03/china-youths-swap-city-dreams-for-country-living-as-jobs-crisis-mounts?srnd=premium-asia
Funneling graduates away from cities where technological innovations are developed risks further undermining growth, while slowing urbanization would reduce demand for new homes, a major contributor to the economy.
Some see Xi’s rural campaign as more of a political move to mitigate the possibility of youth resentment exploding into the open again, after last year’s rare street protests against Covid lockdowns. Moving young people away from urban centers could diffuse that risk, said Jenny Chan, an associate professor of sociology at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, but doesn’t fundamentally address the economic issue.
“It is just postponing the youth unemployment crisis, however, because structurally you are not trying to improve the economic momentum,” she said … “The government is just trying to buy time.”
Below PDF attached for download :
Dying for an iPhone 