For a decade, it seemed President Xi Jinping could do no wrong. Media controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) praised this demigod whose face and sage wisdom graced front pages nationwide.
However, as economic and strategic realities resulting from Xi’s policies begin to bite, the people of China are now paying the price.
Authoritarian regimes must carefully control information, and China is extremely good at this. Yet, to ward off criticisms at home and abroad, Beijing has taken more severe steps to reduce the flow of data harmful to the CCP. Thus, in August the National Bureau of Statistics of China stopped releasing data on youth unemployment.
June’s data was alarming, with unemployment amongst 16-24-year-olds reaching 21.3 per cent, double what it was four years ago. However, the situation is far worse than these figures denote, for in China a person is considered gainfully employed even if they work only one hour per week! Nor does this figure include young people in rural areas.
