China still has a long way to go to make the ‘rural dream’ a reality

State media is trying to paint a rosy picture of such a life to lure people to the countryside as nation’s economy struggles to get back on track

As China struggles with a slow economic recovery and high youth unemployment rate, state media is now painting a rosy picture about the prospects for educated young people who want to move to the countryside to farm or start their own businesses.

Beijing stopped announcing the unemployment rate among young people after it reached a staggering 21.3 per cent in June this year.

But other signs of the pressures young people face can be found everywhere – such as the scramble among graduates to get jobs on the government payroll because of the stability these careers offer, or warnings to parents that their children may need months, or even years, to get on the career ladder.

Life in cities is also getting more difficult due to the high cost of living, a meltdown in the property market and the relatively low salaries on offer for those who can secure jobs.

Videos recording the day-to-day struggles of ordinary city dwellers have proved enormously popular on social media, including an account that attracted more than 400,000 followers on Douyin – the Chinese version of TikTok – by a couple from Zhengzhou in the central province of Henan.

Zhang Yiliang and his wife Dong Lijun, both in their thirties, have documented how they are spending most of their earnings on paying the mortgage on a flat that has not yet been finished and have been forced to skimp on food after Dong’s salary was cut.

They also recorded how work on the apartment had been halted when the developer went bust and how they had been beaten up by the developer when they asked for a rebate.

Last month, the couple said they were considering returning to their hometowns though they seemed to change their minds and stayed in Zhengzhou. Their short videos attracted enormous sympathy online because a large number of people can identify with their hardship.

Meanwhile, state media have been trying to paint a rosy picture about the prospects for urbanites who return to the countryside, describing it as a “rural dream”.

For example, a report in people.cn published on Monday said 12 million people had moved from the cities to the countryside between 2012 and 2022, including increasing numbers of university graduates, entrepreneurs and overseas returnees who are starting businesses.

But while mechanisation, better transport links and internet infrastructure make it more viable to start a business than before, there are still many hurdles for the country to overcome to make the rural dream a reality.

These include problems such as low incomes for most farmers – in 2022, the annual disposable income of farmers was 20,133 yuan (HK$22,000), according to agriculture ministry figures – and the persistent gap in the quality of healthcare services available in the countryside and cities despite government pledges to improve the former.

As for education, many rural schools have closed in recent years due to the exodus of young people to the cities, while many of the remaining schools are struggling with a shortage of teachers and lack of resources.

But most significant is the long-standing gulf in the status of cities and rural areas.

In previous decades the household registration system gave city dwellers a greater entitlement to social welfare services such as pensions and medical insurance.

Although disparities may have narrowed in recent years with reforms to services such as health insurance, rural residents are still treated as inferior and priority is still given to cities.

For example, during this year’s flooding in northern China, rural homes in Hebei province were sacrificed to protect Beijing when the floodgates on reservoirs were opened to release the build-up of water.

China still has a long way to go to bridge the yawning rural-urban economic divide, and speeding up reforms to improve social welfare services for rural dwellers and treating them the same as their city counterparts would be the first step.

Many rural schools have closed in recent years due to the exodus of young people to the cities