China’s Soaring Youth Unemployment Threatens Xi’s Economic Vision

livemint.com:

HEFEI, China—More than one in five young people in China are jobless. The government casts much of the blame on the job seekers themselves, insisting that their expectations have gotten too high. Young people need to stiffen their spines and embrace hardship, says leader Xi Jinping, who labored in the countryside in China’s Cultural Revolution.

If they can’t find jobs they want, they should work on factory lines or engage in poverty relief in rural China. The government’s guidance is ringing hollow with many young people. Growing up in a period of rising prosperity, they were told that China was strong, the West was declining and endless opportunities awaited them.

Now, with the urban youth unemployment rate hitting a record of 21.3% in June, their employment frustrations are posing a new challenge to Xi and his vision for a more powerful China. For the estimated 11.6 million college graduates in 2023, having heeded calls by the state to study hard, the prospect of resorting to the physical labor that many of their parents performed is distinctly unappealing. China’s State Council Information Office, which handles media inquiries for senior leaders, didn’t respond to a request for comment.

In the city of Hefei, a hub of universities 250 miles west of Shanghai, 23-year-old Liu Xingyu chafes at the criticism by older people that Chinese youths are too picky. “They’re not from our generation, and they don’t understand us, so their opinions don’t matter much to us," said Liu, who recently quit her first job out of college a few months after starting and joined the ranks of China’s young unemployed. Liu studied communications engineering at college because she saw it as a practical choice that would help her secure steady