Beijing can do more to support Chinese youth

Graduation of the university in China once meant a permanent job and a path up. Now, for many young people, it marks the start of a long waiting time. Official data showed that the urban unemployment rate has risen 5.4 percent in FebruaryThe highest in two years. For young people aged 16 to 24, the situation was even more gloomy: Unemployment hit 16.9 percentMore than triple the national average.

At the end of March, Chinese state media trumpeted one New operation planPromises to stimulate the creation of jobs in strategic sectors and encourage entrepreneurship. The announcement full of optimism, but the details were frustrating vague – especially for the millions of graduates who are desperate on a foot on a sputtering economy.

For a country that is proud of meticulous planning, this mismatch feels like a missed opportunity between rhetoric and reality. The youth of China is not only figures on a spreadsheet; They are the backbone of his future growth, and Beijing can – and must – do more to use their potential.

This is not a typical unemployment crisis. The youngsters of China are under pressure in contrast to that of each generation for them. Most are only children, products from the decades -long policy for one child, now charged with supporting aging parents in a society where the older population quickly swells. By 2035, Almost a third of the Chinese citizens Will be more than 60, and the care burden – financial, emotional and physical – will fall square on today’s youth.

At the same time, the labor market they introduce is ruthless. The technical sector, once a beacon for ambitious graduates, is battered by legal action. Real estate, another economic pillar, is entangled in a debt crisis that is subject to hiring. In the meantime, the number of graduates will continue to rise – is expected to strike A record of 12.22 million this summer. For these young people, the promise of education begins to sound like a Ticket for Stability.

Yet the prevailing story about the youth of China often lacks the reality of their resilience. Popular discourse, both in your own country and abroad, fixes on the “Lying flat” Phenomenon – Young people who supposedly check from the rat race, content to take away their days. That caricature, although handy, cannot record what is happening on the ground.

Look closer and you will see a generation scrambling to adjust. Young entrepreneurs have in national provinces turned to short-video platforms to hawk local goods -Thinking handmade crafts or farm-fresh products, a modest few hundred yuan daily through pure ingenuity. In cities, others test the waters with Weekend market stallsPooling lean savings to start small companies. These are not the movements of a generation that specifies; They are the filthy, creative efforts of people who are determined to do in a system that does not abandon them.

Their ingenuity does not stop there. Young people quietly reform their spending habits and change imported luxury brands for affordable domestic alternatives. Starbucks runs are replaced by home-brewed tea and chic dinners make way at home for shared meals at home.

But here is the wend pouring money in the development of skills – Online courses in coding, design or English, everything that can give them a lead. This mix of economy and ambition reveals a generation that is not defined by apathy but by a pragmatic determination to forge their own paths.

The question is whether Beijing will match that solution with policy that is courageous enough to create permanent opportunities.

However, the current government strategies do not fall to the goal. Employment in the past – job fairs, subsidies for small companies and campaigns to lead young people to national roles – delivered at best mixed results. Guangdong’s 2023 Plan to Send 300,000 young people to the countryside Sounded ambitious, but many graduates were about the idea of ​​leaving cities for low -paid performances with a low prospect. The Hyped-Up Action Plan of March promises jobs in “important sectors” such as advanced production and AI, but it is light on how it will bridge the gap for college-skilled young people who dominate unemployment roles.

Inremental Tweaks will not be enough if the scale of a challenge is this enormous challenge. China needs a game changer-one led by the State initiative that not only connects gaps, but also represents how young people fit into the economy.

History offers a fascinating model for such a shift. In the 1930s, the United States was confronted with its own youth work crisis in the midst of the great depression. President Franklin Roosevelt responded with The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)A radical but practical program that put millions of young men to work on public projects – planting forests, building roads and the preservation of land. They earned modest wages, received skills and left with references that later fed the post -war tree of the United States.

The CCC has not only transferred people; It changed a restless generation to an economically active, which the nation presented decades of prosperity for decades. China could adapt this model to its own needs and make a modern equivalent that channeled the energy of his youth in projects that are tailored to today’s priorities.

Imagine a Chinese CCC for the 21st century. Millions of young people can be mobilized for the state-supported projects of green infrastructure such as solar farms or wind turbines, digitization of national health care with counting medicine networks or rehabilitating ecosystems that are tensioned by decades of rapid industrialization. They would earn a livable wage, much more stable than the The ups and downs of gig -economyWhile he picks up technical skills and professional certifications. In rural areas they were able to train the locals in e-commerce or maintenance of renewable energy, which means that grass growth is fueled. In cities they could strengthen the public services that are tense due to rapid urbanization.

This is not a good cause – it is an investment. Young employees with income and goal would spend more, which stimulates consumption at a time when the Chinese economy desperately needs it. The wrinkle effects can stabilize a workforce that is increasingly disillusioned by dead -end prospects.

The parallels with the Roosevelt CCC are of course not perfect. The Chinese economy is more complicated, educated his youth and his challenges intertwined with the global trade environment. But the core logic applies: a daring, centralized push can adjust the individual ambition to national priorities. Beijing has the tools to make it work-and-storm central tax sources, a talent for mobilizing work and a track record of mega projects. What is missing is the vision of not seeing youth unemployment as a liability, but as an opportunity. The state has long been shining in the industrial policy; Why not apply the same muscle to human capital?

Skeptics can claim that this is too expensive or ambitious, but the costs of inactivity are steeper. A generation that has to take care of itself risks not only economic stagnation, but also social unrest – a prospect that the Chinese communist party can afford while navigating an aging population and slows down growth. The CCC was also not cheap, but it paid off by breathing new life into the staff and the infrastructure of the United States. The leaders of China often evoke ‘high -quality development’ as a mantra; A public work program focused on young people fits that Bill, the delivery of tangible profits in skills, jobs and morality.

This is also not about forcing young people in rolls they would blame. The beauty of a modern CCC is the flexibility of flexibility – vote for the strengths of Chinese graduates. Tech-Savvy Youth could lead digital initiatives; Engineering Majors can design sustainable systems; Humanities -Grads could lead the community of the community. Combine that with practical stimulus loan, housing stipends or even fast access to the civil service and It is a package that can even lure the most skeptical.

The “lying flat” crowd is not addicted; They are disillusioned. Millions of young Chinese hurry in the margins and scraping in ingenuity and grit. Give them a mission that is worth believing in, and they will go there.

The newest employment plan from Beijing points to the right instincts – jobs in strategic sectors, attention for young people – but it stops the transforming jump that China needs. The details of February are a wake-up call: 16.9 percent youth unemployment is a crisis that will not solve itself. A Chinese CCC can be daring that chance, investment-led investment in the future of the country. Roosevelt’s vision lifted the United States from despair to prosperity. With the right version, China could do the same and turn a restless cohort into a motor for growth.