"Even with a College Degree, Delivery Is All That's Left"... The Truth Behind Xi Jinping's Hidden '12.7 Million' [AFTER 8NEWS]

00:00 Intro
00:30 "Graduated from university and delivering food"... 1.5 million won for 11 hours a day
02:18 "Students were excluded"... The trap of the 15.6% unemployment rate
03:24 "It's already rotting, so let it rot more"... The influx of 12.7 million people
04:39 Why did jobs disappear... Regulations, mismatches, and US-China conflicts
06:14 "Xi Jinping has grown desperate"... Youth frustration shaking the regime

I am currently standing on a street in downtown Beijing where many restaurants are clustered. Since it is almost the evening hour when orders flood in, you can easily find delivery riders waiting in rows like this. Delivery in Chinese is called 'waimai,' and if you look closely, the delivery riders are wearing colorful clothes. Yellow is Meituan, and red is JD. Each wearing the clothes of the company they belong to, they roam the streets all day.

1. "Graduated from University and Delivering Food"... 1.5 Million Won for 11 Hours a Day
Among the delivery riders, there were many faces that looked young at a glance, so I asked a few of them directly. A mix of permanent and temporary workers, their working hours were typically around 11 hours a day.

#Delivery Youth
(Do you start work at 8 and get off at 7:30 PM?) "There are set commuting hours. There are many delivery riders, but orders are few, so it's not easy. Everything is harder because of the social environment."

The young people I met were mostly those who had just graduated from what would be equivalent to our middle school or graduated from vocational high schools and came out to earn money, and their hometowns were not Beijing.

#Delivery Youth
(Why did you come to Beijing?) "Because I can make money. Beijing is the place where you can make the most money in the north."

In the early days, they could make around 3 million won in Korean currency a month, but now, due to fierce competition and a drop in delivery orders caused by the economic downturn, working a full month earns them about 1.5 million won.

#Delivery Youth
"I deliver about 40 items a day. (How much do you make per delivery?) It's about 1,100 to 1,200 won."

Stories of young people who graduated from university, diligently knocked on corporate doors, but failed to find good jobs and ended up taking on delivery work are frequently posted on social media.

#Delivery Youth
(An older brother from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region said) 'Do you know what school I graduated from? I graduated from Xinjiang University of Finance and Economics.' Then another older brother said, 'I graduated from university too. I graduated last year and came out to be a delivery rider this year.' Isn't that ironic? Three university graduates (including me) gathered together.

2. "Students Were Excluded"... The Trap of the 15.6% Unemployment Rate
The street scenes in major Chinese cities right now are a mirror reflecting the brutal reality of youth employment. Looking at the youth unemployment rate for those aged 16 to 24 recently announced by China's National Bureau of Statistics, it is 15.6%. Looking at this number alone, it is easy to be misled into thinking that it has dropped somewhat compared to the past when it exceeded 20%. However, there is a huge trap in this figure. That is because Chinese authorities completely excluded students from this statistic. When China's youth unemployment rate soared to a record high of 21.3% in June 2023, it suddenly suspended the release of statistics for more than two months. After going through statistical revisions, it resumed publication by changing the calculation method to exclude students. The Chinese government's explanation is as follows: A student's main occupation is studying, and they are not considered truly unemployed in the job market. However, looking at the inner motives, by removing a large number of young people in a state of 'employment postponement'—such as delaying graduation or going to graduate school because they cannot find jobs—from the statistics, it appears to aim for a so-called 'illusion effect' that artificially lowers the figure. Therefore, estimations continue to emerge that China's actual perceived youth unemployment rate is much higher than this.

3. "It's Already Rotting, So Let It Rot More"... The Influx of 12.7 Million People
Yet, amidst this situation, a record-breaking number of university graduates flooded into the labor market this year. A staggering 12.7 million people. Ever since the figure first surpassed 10 million in 2022, record highs have been broken every year. This means that a number of fresh graduates greater than the entire population of Seoul pour into the employment market all at once every year. The problem is that neither the quality nor the quantity of jobs can accommodate this explosive supply. As a result, terms like 'tangping' (lying flat) and 'bailan' (let it rot) have been trending in Chinese youth society for a few years now. Tangping literally means lying down and getting by without doing anything diligently, while bailan goes a step further from this. It is a state of extreme apathy or resignation, figuring that since the situation is already rotten, it might as well rot further. An increasing number of young people are giving up entirely because they feel that even if they work hard, it is difficult to get a good job, buying a home is even harder, and social rise or class mobility is impossible.

#Job-Seeking Youth
"(During my school days) I asked a lot of questions and thought I could get a job upon graduation. I never imagined I would send out this many resumes. Nobody wants me."

4. Why Did Jobs Disappear... Regulations, Mismatches, and US-China Conflicts
There are several reasons why China's youth unemployment rate refuses to drop. First, regulations targeting industries preferred by young people have had a major impact. Much like young people in Korea, high-achieving young Chinese people aspire to work at big tech IT companies like Alibaba and Tencent. However, since 2020, as the Chinese government tightened regulations on these sectors, employment in these fields—which made significant contributions to youth employment over the past decade—has drastically shrunk. In addition, China tightened regulations on educational companies under the pretext of easing the private education burden for parents, wiping out millions of high-skilled jobs. I recently spoke with a parent whose child took the 'gaokao,' China's college entrance exam. I was told that the private education market hasn't entirely vanished; people are still finding ways through under-the-table connections. However, because it can no longer be done openly as before, its scale has drastically diminished. The second factor is the so-called 'mismatch.' China is a bona fide manufacturing powerhouse with plenty of jobs in related fields. However, the 12 million young people who struggled to graduate from university do not want to work in 3D (difficult, dirty, and dangerous) jobs or factory assembly lines. Even then, robots are being introduced one by one into these manufacturing sites, rapidly replacing routine tasks. Furthermore, with the domestic economic downturn and persistent US-China conflicts causing businesses to view the future with uncertainty and adopt conservative hiring practices, the overall pie of available jobs is failing to expand.

5. "Xi Jinping Has Grown Desperate"... Youth Frustration Shaking the Regime
The grievances and employment crisis of the young people are critical issues that China cannot afford to ignore. In a speech delivered not long ago commemorating the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party, President Xi Jinping made unusually lengthy remarks about the youth. Ordinarily, founding anniversary speeches are occasions to outline national discourses such as the party's great achievements or external security, but President Xi placed strong emphasis on the word 'youth.'

#Xi Jinping / Chinese President
"The youth are the main force in realizing the great rejuvenation of China. The entire party must value the youth, care for the youth, and support the youth. We must create conditions to help the youth grow and cultivate them into talent."

Underpinning this is a sense of crisis that if the frustration of the younger generation—who have lost their jobs and let go of hope—leads to social discontent, it could destabilize the stability of the Communist Party regime. Ultimately, the sight of youth delivery workers driven into the streets demonstrates that this goes beyond a mere economic issue, representing the most urgent and national task that Chinese society as a whole must resolve.

(Reported by Choi Go-un | Produced by SBS Digital News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.