China
China’s youth face dismal job prospects
Xu Ke, 21, comes from a long line of university lecturers.
Yet his peers and people a few years older than him are all struggling with a major crisis in their lives: growing competition for a dwindling number of jobs as youth unemployment tops 20%, driven by a huge downturn in manufacturing and foreign investment.
“There aren’t many jobs, and the competition for the jobs there are is too strong,” said Xu, who is currently studying at a university in Minnesota. “Everyone is willing to do any job.”
“With everyone willing to do anything, wages are [kept] low, and benefits are poor,” Xu told Radio Free Asia in a recent interview.
Before the pandemic, most of his peers would once have expected to study for a teaching or liberal arts degree, before going on to land jobs as elementary and secondary school teachers.
But those days are long gone, Xu said, adding that the 20.4% unemployment rate among people aged 16-24 reported by the National Bureau of Statistics for April was likely only the tip of the iceberg.
“I would guess that the proportion of young people who can’t find a job at all is likely to be between 40 and 50%,” he said.
“After all, not everyone [with parents who work in the government] system can even get into senior high school, and not everyone in senior high school can get into college,” he said. He cited a government quota introduced in 2021 requiring 50% of junior high school students to take up places in technical and vocational schools, rather than senior high school.
Before the policy was introduced, around 60% of junior high-schoolers would have gone on to senior high, where they would then be eligible to take the grueling “Gaokao” university entrance exam.
Shut out
Some of Xu’s friends have now effectively been barred from a university education, and from the white collar jobs that education prepares them for.
Shut out of the system that raised them, they are forced to look for blue-collar jobs instead.
“Wages [in blue-collar jobs] are very low, and there is a lot of strenuous physical labor,” he said. “Some people can’t do it, or they can’t find [even blue-collar] jobs, so they basically spend their time waiting to get old.”
For 30-year-old Shan Wentao, it’s a familiar scenario.
Born into a working-class family in the eastern province of Anhui, Shan says even his peers can’t find work in the current economic environment, with dwindling opportunities in manufacturing and sharp falls in foreign investment.
“I tried to get a shift on a construction site, but there are more people [available to work] in the industry now, and the wages are getting lower and lower, while the work is pretty backbreaking,” he said.
One of Shan’s friends did land some construction work, but only lasted a few months due to health problems and non-payment of wages.
Yet for young working class people, “lying flat” – essentially doing nothing while living at home – is less of an option than it is for their counterparts with higher-level qualifications, as many are already married, and can’t live back home with mom and dad.
“There’s nothing to be done about it,” he said. “I get the impression they don’t want to do these jobs, but what else can they do?”
‘Revitalizing the rural economy’
A woman who gave only the surname Chen said she has a 17-year-old relative who is despondent about life after she graduates from vocational school.
“She says the teaching in the technical school is so bad that she isn’t learning anything, and that she’ll earn very little after she graduates,” Chen said. “She says it’s easier just to lie flat.”
“She doesn’t want to do manual work, because it’s too tiring, but her family doesn’t have the resources to send her to study overseas,” she said. “She is desperate, and confused about the future.”
National Bureau of Statistics spokesperson Fu Linghui told a news conference on May 16 that “the relevant departments are proactively introducing policies to provide targeted assistance” to help young people into work.
But media reports pointed to a rising number of college graduates in recent years, coupled with residual unemployment from previous years.
President Xi Jinping has called on young people to be less picky about the jobs they’ll accept, as well as lauding those who return to rural areas to “revitalize the rural economy.”
But his exhortations have fallen on deaf ears as the middle class cash out of the Chinese economy and join the “run” movement, seeking a new life overseas, often via political asylum in the United States.
“During the Mao era, the Chinese government promoted the relocation of educated urban youths to the countryside, through a combination of heavy political propaganda and various kinds of political pressure,” U.S.-based economist He Qinglian wrote in a recent commentary for RFA Mandarin.
But while more than 12 million have done so in recent years, the numbers don’t amount to much when taken alongside the hundreds of millions of rural residents who continue to move into China’s cities to find work.
“Of course the Chinese government knows very well that it won’t be able to get rural youths who have experienced the simplicity of urban life to pick up their hoes and bend themselves double over the land again,” He wrote, citing the rise of “Taobao villages” as people run online shops from rural locations.
She cited government balance-of-payments data as showing a 43% decline in foreign direct investment in China in 2022, compared with the previous year.
“Foreign-invested companies are gradually withdrawing from the Chinese market, which is a big blow to employment rates,” she said, adding that youth unemployment rates would be higher still if the government didn’t remove people returning to rural hometowns from the figures.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
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China
Lingang New Area in Shanghai Opens First Cross-Border Data Service Center to Streamline Data Export Process
The Lingang New Area in Shanghai has launched China’s first Cross-Border Data Service Center to facilitate data export for companies in Shanghai. The center will help with applications, data catalogs, and management, aiming to provide legal and safe cross-border data transfer mechanisms.
The Lingang New Area in Shanghai’s Pilot Free Trade Zone has launched a new cross-border data service center to provide administrative and consulting services to companies in Shanghai that need to export data out of China. The service center will help facilitate data export by accepting applications from companies for data export projects and is tasked with formulating and implementing data catalogs to facilitate data export in the area. The Shanghai cross-border data service center will provide services to companies across the whole city.
The Lingang New Area in the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone has launched China’s first Cross-Border Data Service Center (the “service center”). The service center, which is jointly operated by the Cybersecurity Administration of China (CAC) and the local government, aims to further facilitate legal, safe, and convenient cross-border data transfer (CBDT) mechanisms for companies.
The service center will not only serve companies in the Lingang New Area but is also open to companies across Shanghai, and will act as an administrative service center specializing in CBDT.
In January 2024, the local government showcased a set of trial measures for the “classified and hierarchical” management of CBDT in the Lingang New Area. The measures, which have not yet been released to the public, seek to facilitate CBDT from the area by dividing data for cross-border transfer into three different risk categories: core, important, and general data.
The local government also pledged to release two data catalogs: a “general data” catalog, which will include types of data that can be transferred freely out of the Lingang New Area, and an “important data” catalog, which will be subject to restrictions. According to Zong Liang, an evaluation expert at the service center, the first draft of the general data catalog has been completed and is being submitted to the relevant superior departments for review.
In March 2024, the CAC released the final version of a set of regulations significantly facilitating CBDT for companies in the country. The new regulations increase the limits on the volume of PI that a company can handle before it is required to undergo additional compliance procedures, provide exemptions from the compliance procedures, and clarify the handling of important data.
Also in March, China released a new set of technical standards stipulating the rules for classifying three different types of data – core, important, and general data. Importantly, the standards provide guidelines for regulators and companies to identify what is considered “important” data. This means they will act as a reference for companies and regulators when assessing the types of data that can be exported, including FTZs such as the Lingang New Area.
This article is republished from China Briefing. Read the rest of the original article.
China Briefing is written and produced by Dezan Shira & Associates. The practice assists foreign investors into China and has done since 1992 through offices in Beijing, Tianjin, Dalian, Qingdao, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Suzhou, Guangzhou, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong. Please contact the firm for assistance in China at china@dezshira.com.
China
A Concise Guide to the Verification Letter of Invitation Requirement in the China Visa Process
The application procedures for business visas to China have been simplified, with most foreigners now able to apply for an M/F visa using only an invitation letter from a Chinese company. Some countries are eligible for visa-free entry. However, a Verification Letter of Invitation may still be needed in certain cases. Consult the local Chinese embassy for confirmation.
In light of recent developments, the application procedures for business visas to China have undergone substantial simplification. Most foreigners can now apply for an M/F visa using only the invitation letter issued by a Chinese company. Additionally, citizens of certain countries are eligible to enter China without a visa and stay for up to 144 hours or even 15 days.
However, it’s important to note that some applicants may still need to apply for a “Verification Letter of Invitation (邀请核实单)” when applying for an M/F visa to China. In this article, we will introduce what a Verification Letter of Invitation is, who needs to apply for it, and the potential risks.
It’s important to note that in most cases, the invitation letter provided by the inviting unit (whether a public entity or a company) is sufficient for M/F visa applications. The Verification Letter for Invitation is only required when the Chinese embassies or consulates in certain countries specifically ask for the document.
Meanwhile, it is also essential to note that obtaining a Verification Letter for Invitation does not guarantee visa approval. The final decision on granting a visa rests with the Chinese embassy abroad, based on the specific circumstances of the applicant.
Based on current information, foreign applicants in Sri Lanka and most Middle East countries – such as Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, Pakistan, and so on – need to submit a Verification Letter for Invitation when they apply for a visa to China.
That said, a Verification Letter for Invitation might not be required in a few Middle East countries, such as Saudi Arabia. Therefore, we suggest that foreign applicants consult with their the local Chinese embassy or consulate to confirm in advance.
This article is republished from China Briefing. Read the rest of the original article.
China Briefing is written and produced by Dezan Shira & Associates. The practice assists foreign investors into China and has done since 1992 through offices in Beijing, Tianjin, Dalian, Qingdao, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Suzhou, Guangzhou, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong. Please contact the firm for assistance in China at china@dezshira.com.
China
Uyghurs remember 1990 Baren Uprising over China’s forced abortions
Uyghurs and sympathetic protesters rallied in Washington, Istanbul and Munich on Friday to remember a 1990 uprising in Xinjiang triggered by anger over China forcing Uyghur women to get abortions and sterilizations.
The death toll from the Baren uprising – put down by Chinese troops – ranges from a couple dozen to as many as 3,000, according to the World Uyghur Congress.
Chinese authorities never held a public investigation, and Human Rights Watch said that a reliable tally of the casualties may never be known.
The rebellion started on the evening of April 4, 1990, when over 200 Uyghurs tried to break into a local government office in Baren, a town of 19,000 in Akto county on the western edge of the Taklamakan Desert in Xinjiang’s Kizilsu Kyrgyz Autonomous Prefecture.
In response, the Chinese government dispatched over 18,000 troops to quell protests, killing an unknown number of people on April 5 and subsequent days.
Seminal moment
The uprising was a seminal moment because it began a period of increased Chinese repression of the mostly Muslim Uyghurs, who today number about 11 million. Those policies have led to what the United States and other Western nations have labeled a genocide and crimes against humanity.
“The Baren Uprising was one of the earliest expressions of growing resentment within Uyghur society in the 1990s against the oppressive measures of the Chinese authorities,” said Dolkun Isa, president of the World Uyghur Congress, or WUC, in a statement.
“The Chinese government’s violent crackdown on the protestors signaled a broader escalation in the violence against the Uyghur people, which over the last decades has evolved into genocide.”
China views the April 4 incident as a “counter-revolutionary armed riot” between Uyghur militants and Chinese government forces, incited by the East Turkistan Islamic Party. People linked to the party attacked the government building, kidnapping 10 people, killing six armed police officers, and blowing up two vehicles.
Protests
Hundreds of people demonstrated in front of the Chinese Embassy in Berlin and the Chinese Consulate in Munich, Germany. Dozens of people protested outside the Chinese Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, and at a commemorative event in Ankara attended by members of two of Turkey’s political parties.
Uyghurs held another commemorative event in Sweden. Others gathered in the Netherlands, Britain and in Central Asian nations.
In Washington, about a dozen protesters gathered outside Chinese Embassy on Friday and shouted, “China, stop the Uyghur genocide” and “We want freedom.”
The rally also featured an iftar — an evening meal eaten by Muslim families after the daylong fasts during Ramadan — with Uyghur cuisine to highlight the Chinese Communist Party’s persecution of Uyghur Muslims during the Islamic holy month, which runs from March 10 to April 9 this year.
WUC Vice President Zubeyra Shamseden urged the international community to hold the perpetrators of human rights violations against the Uyghurs accountable for their crimes.
Rushan Abbas, executive director of the Campaign for Uyghurs, called the Baren Uprising a vicious example of the Chinese Communist Party’s ruthless tactics attacking the legitimate demands of its people for dignity and basic human rights.”
“It started in Baren when people protested the forced sterilization and forced abortions of Uyghur women,” she told RFA. “Today, they are still continuing with this full-fledged act of genocide.”
Translated by RFA Uyghur. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.
Read the rest of this article here >>> Uyghurs remember 1990 Baren Uprising over China’s forced abortions
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- Uyghurs remember 1990 Baren Uprising over China’s forced abortions
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