Protests about more than COVID
Chinese youth face limited prospects
WOMEN ARE TAKING CENTRE STAGE IN THE PROTESTS. — MADDEAUX
How far can governments push young people without sparking mass unrest? China is in the process of finding out. Over the past few days, the nation has seen its largest and most widespread protests since Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Many of those chanting in the streets, carrying blank pieces of white paper in defiance of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) strict censorship regime, weren’t born for at least a decade after Tiananmen. Others were mere infants.
Universities have been hot spots for demonstrations. One of the first steps China took to discourage more protests was to send students home from urban campuses. Perhaps not coincidentally, many of these same students are set to enter China’s worst job market in decades. The country’s youth unemployment rate stands at a high 18.4 per cent.
While there’s been plenty of focus on the pushback against China’s draconian ZERO-COVID policies, that’s only part of the story. For years now, poor economic prospects and a declining quality of life have been brewing anger and resentment among younger Chinese citizens.
Many Chinese millennials and Gen Z are convinced they’ll be the first generation to not do better than their parents. If this sentiment sounds familiar, perhaps it’s because more than twothirds of Canadians millennials feel the same way.
However, unlike Canadian millennials — who our own leaders would be well-advised to note disproportionately supported the Freedom Convoy — many of China’s young have had a lot more time to stew in their frustrations while literally locked in their homes. They also live under an incomparably repressive authoritarian regime that leaves them with few other freedoms when their personal economic freedoms to do things like work, buy homes and support families wither.
The so-called “quiet quitting” (doing the minimum amount of work possible to keep one’s job) trend making employers nervous in North America was first inspired by young Chinese workers who began “lying flat” en masse due to overwork and underpay. The movement was considered enough of a threat that Chinese President Xi Jinping himself condemned it.
But lying flat may be the least of China’s problems as it heads toward what’s been dubbed its “demographic time bomb.” Despite turning its one-child policy into a two-child policy in 2016, followed by a three-child policy in 2021, China is having a tough time convincing its young to have any children at all. Even marriage is falling out of favour. Cost of living, overwork and unaffordable childcare are major causes.
The nation also has its own housing crisis, with young people largely priced out of buying and forced to live in smaller and smaller spaces. In response, the government is rushing to build over six million lowcost rentals over the next few years, but only time will tell if the CCP can convince youth that renting really is as good as owning.
It’s widely understood the CCP has an unspoken social contract with the Chinese populace. Essentially, the party retains its stronghold on power and citizens tolerate its often brutal tactics with the expectation of rapid economic growth and increased opportunities to prosper. However, the CCP has not upheld its end of the bargain with younger generations.
Combined with oppressive ZERO-COVID policies, which have of course also exacerbated economic pain, this failure has pushed many students and young professionals to demand a new contract.
Also noteworthy: many women are taking centre stage in the protests. One was even nicknamed “tank lady” (a nod to Tiananmen Square’s “tank man”) for her brave defiance of armed officers who push her and then appear to drag her away before the camera filming the confrontation is forced off. Women, in particular, experienced generational economic setbacks under Xi Jinping’s rule. Gender inequality has actually worsened over the years.
Zero COVID may have been a breaking point, but current protests are a result of a crumbling social contract. If the CCP is able to quell this discontent in the long term, it will take much more than simply loosening or even reversing pandemic policies. It will either have to find a way to hold up its end of the pact with young people or ruthlessly increase its control over the population. At least in the short term, signs point to the latter.
As for western leaders, they may not want to get too smug about this uprising. They, too, have broken social contracts with young generations who are increasingly angry. The breaking point may not look the same as it does in authoritarian China, but, without change, it will inevitably come.
CHINA IS HAVING A TOUGH TIME CONVINCING ITS YOUNG TO HAVE ANY CHILDREN AT ALL.