In today’s China, the situation is somewhat reminiscent of the later stages of the Cultural Revolution. Despite the Chinese Communist Party’s daily self-promotion, voices of opposition and curses from the public continue to grow louder. Social problems are rampant, and the views of the Chinese people toward the CCP regime have undergone a shift.
When the CCP prioritizes regime security, policy designs deviate from economic development, leading to the suppression of the private economy – which provides job opportunities for the majority of the population – as a perceived security loophole. However, the CCP’s full efforts in creating the so-called “new productive forces for a strong nation” have failed to stimulate domestic demand and employment. The ongoing real estate crisis in China has no solution in sight, causing a significant shrink in the wealth of ordinary people, mass exodus of foreign investments, and plummeting economy.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, the employment rate of recent graduates in mainland China has been deteriorating. According to the “2024 College Student Employment Force Survey Report” released last month by Zhaopin, only 48% of recent graduates received informal job offers, a 2.4 percentage point decrease from the same period last year.
While official CCP unemployment data shows a relatively low 5% unemployment rate in May, unofficial data tells a different story. Companies like Boss Zhipin, the largest online recruitment platform in China, reported a 47% increase in average monthly users last year. Another talent recruitment website, Liepin, reported a 92.9% increase in the number of job seekers applying for overseas positions in the first half of last year.
The official CCP unemployment data does not cover the large population of rural migrant workers who have become unemployed. Figures show that around 10 million out of China’s 300 million rural migrant workers left the construction industry in 2022 and 2023.
Crime rates in mainland China are also on the rise. The number of cases handled by CCP courts increased by nearly 16% last year compared to the previous year, with the top five crime types being dangerous driving (up 15%), theft (up 18%), and fraud (up 33%).
There have been several random murder cases in China this year, targeting not only Chinese but also American and Japanese individuals. Just after July 2nd, there were at least 9 incidents with 9 fatalities and multiple injuries.
Perpetrators are becoming increasingly younger. In March this year, a student who failed an exam drove into a group of students in Taizhou, Zhejiang Province, resulting in 3 deaths and 16 injuries.
On July 5th, in Xindi Village, Zhanjiang, Guangdong, a primary school student stabbed his grandfather multiple times in the heart area with a knife after the grandfather refused to top up his game credits, causing the grandfather’s blood to cover the boy’s body.
Mr. Yang, a small business owner in Jinhua, Zhejiang, told Epoch Times that the domestic economy is relatively poor, with a heavy sense of resentment prevalent. The frequency of violent incidents has increased, and there are deaths occurring almost daily within the country. The significant factors contributing to this include unemployment and income issues, which are increasingly hitting people where it hurts, resulting in a surge of individuals resorting to violence to vent their frustrations.
The psychological problems of mainland Chinese people are becoming increasingly severe. In 2023, there was an 83% increase in the viewing of videos related to mental health compared to the same period the previous year. On the video platform Bilibili, searches for anxiety, depression, and stress relief solutions have increased by 224%.
According to a recent study by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of suicides among 5 to 14-year-olds increased by nearly 10% annually from 2010 to 2021. For those aged 15 to 24, the suicide rate had been declining by 7% annually until 2017, but then rose by nearly 20% in the following four years.
Researchers suggest that children and adolescents face intense competition in schools. A national survey conducted in 2022 revealed that half of the individuals suffering from depression were students.
A call to the Child Psychiatry Department at Peking University Sixth Hospital regarding childhood depression issues received the response that depression, like a cold or fever in general hospitals, is a common ailment that any doctor at their hospital can treat.
Zhang Lufan, a high school student who migrated to the United States, mentioned that during her high school days in China, there were tests for depression, with teachers stating that the ratio of depression in her class ranged from 30% to 40%.
She recounted incidents like a male classmate who developed depression after spending hours looking out the window during self-study sessions instead of completing assignments. Another female classmate was on antidepressants, and the severity of depression reached a point where one girl had visible scars on her wrist and remained silent and desolate.
Zhang Lufan explained that high school in China scheduled every minute of the day tightly, leaving no room for freedom. Schools in rural areas had even stricter routines, starting at 4 AM with calisthenics, followed by meals and continuous classes until 11 PM, with only five minutes break between classes and brief resting periods on the desk after lunch. The workload was overwhelming, allowing only a little over five hours of rest each day.
A recent empirical study on inequality by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) highlighted a significant change in the Chinese psyche, with a diminishing belief in changing one’s fate through personal abilities and efforts.
Before 2015, responses to poverty reasons saw “lack of ability” and “lack of effort” as the most popular answers, ranking in the top three, with “inequality of opportunity” only in sixth place in 2004, and “unfair economic system” below eighth place. In the latest survey, “inequality of opportunity” and “unfair economic system” rose to first and third places, while “lack of effort” and “lack of ability” fell to fifth and sixth places.
There is also a decreasing faith in university education, with the importance of having “higher education” falling from second place in 2004 to third, sixth, and seventh places. Pursuing a college degree is no longer as crucial for many.
This shift has resulted in people realizing that personal abilities and efforts may not yield results, leading youths to lose motivation and choose to “lie flat,” become “idle young people,” or give up, with dissatisfactions towards the current economic situation being directed towards the CCP system itself.
The Financial Times reported that at a seminar held last year in a city in eastern China, dozens of municipal and provincial officials gathered to discuss social risks and potential solutions. Although they claimed that street protest sizes had decreased compared to the pandemic period, they observed a sharp increase in online protest activities, mostly “not related to politics” but driven by “social emotions.”
During the seminar, officials admitted that the perception of inequality between the rich and the poor, as well as between officials and the masses, was widespread. Public sentiment was extremely fragile, particularly when avenues to express anger were limited, leading to increasingly common conflicts between government officials and ordinary citizens.
Researcher Wu Se from the Taiwan Cross-Strait Policy Association stated that China’s current social issues are closely related to its economic development and governance model.
“In the early stages of reform and opening up, the Chinese people may have believed that economic openness was more important than political reform, showing great tolerance towards politics. However, as economic development continues to decline, societal dissatisfaction will gradually turn towards the ruling authorities or the government’s top leadership, starting to question the political system constructed by the CCP.”
Indeed, since 2019, as Chinese society rapidly shifted backwards, the systemic issues within the CCP have become the target of protesters, with enraged citizens calling for “the Communist Party to step down” and “Xi Jinping to step down.”
Former employee of a financial firm in Shenzhen, Zhou Hongyan, revealed that she was considered middle-class in China with a house and a car in Shenzhen, but the reason she left was due to the pandemic.
“The lockdown made me feel like we were back in the Cultural Revolution,” she said. “Freedom and personal rights could be infringed at any time, and we did not know what would happen next. It’s terrifying how ordinary people are mobilized to control other ordinary people.”
“People need a normal life and work, but if you refuse to take a nucleic acid test every day, you cannot go anywhere. If your QR code turns yellow or red, you will be quarantined, but how one’s status changes from yellow to red, no one knows. Every aspect of life is controlled – during this period, I developed severe depression, with no hope in sight.”
She continued, “Another significant reason for leaving China was for my child. The current employment situation in China, regular children can’t make it. Even if they manage to safely reach university graduation domestically, the ultimate fate may be delivering takeout. More importantly, there are too many organ transplants done by the CCP, and seeing so many missing children losing their organs in my social circle daily was horrifying as a mother.”
“After 2015, things just got worse, and by 2017, it was going downhill, reaching a point where from the lockdown in 2019 to now, the CCP has brought China back to the era of the Cultural Revolution. I find survival too difficult.”
Many economists believe that providing more welfare benefits to the Chinese people to reduce the burden of healthcare and education might help alleviate psychological stress among the populace. However, top CCP officials have made it clear not to fall into the trap of a European-style social welfare system.
A resident of a first-tier city, Ms. Bai, mentioned that China’s social security system and government subsidies are minimal, with companies bearing the primary burden. Welfare benefits are lacking, and numerous reasons are often given to prevent individuals from availing them.
“My grandfather is on his deathbed in the hospital, where the maximum stay is 15 days or until diagnosis or discharge because there is a limit on reimbursement; on some occasions during surgeries, the hospital claims the expenses have exceeded the limit, and you have to pay out-of-pocket.”
Ms. Bai stated that when visiting the hospital for a cold, ibuprofen, an effective medicine, would be prescribed, alongside three to four expensive traditional Chinese medicines that are ineffective, cannot be reimbursed by insurance, and cannot be used.
“People generally feel there is no hope left, so let’s wait to die together,” she concluded.