Xi’s letter reflecting China’s agony

The letter sent by Xi to check on college students around China’s Youth Day on May 4 contained his deepening concerns.

YOU SANG-CHULThe author is the head of the China Institute of the JoongAng Ilbo and CEO of China Lab. In China, a new school year begins in the fall. College students graduating in the summer are already in a job war. Last year and this year, the “Down to the Countryside Movement” from the Cultural Revolution is once again recommended to college graduates.

Chinese media released a letter from Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier this month. It was Xi’s response to a letter from a student representative at the Chinese Agricultural University.

Xi started the letter, “I am very happy that you go deep into the fields and farms and work there to understand people’s livelihoods and refine your studies.” The Chinese president wrote, “In the letter, you said that young people learn truth, become one with the crowd, and voluntarily suffer by going deep into the countryside. You are doing the right job. Young Chinese people in the new era should have this spirit.”

Some criticized that it is version 2.0 of the Down to the Countryside Movement, which began in 1968 and sent 17 million young intellectuals to rural areas for 10 years.

At that time, Chairman Mao said, “Young intellectuals should go to the countryside and learn from the poor farmers.” The biggest reason for the encouragement was that the economy had been destroyed by the madness of the Cultural Revolution and could not provide jobs to the young people.

Last year, when 10.76 million college graduates were not able to find jobs on time, the Down to the Countryside Movement resumed.

The Chinese Ministry of Education issued a notice encouraging college graduates to find jobs in rural areas. The Chinese media also shed light on the “Go West” program, urging people to go to underdeveloped Western regions.

The same is true this year. This summer, 11.58 million students will graduate from college, 820,000 more than last year. But it is not easy to find a job, with China’s unemployment rate for the young aged 16 to 24 reaching an all-time high of 19.6 percent in March. In addition to the aftereffects of Covid-19, the biggest cause for unemployment is the deteriorating business environment in China.

Lately in China, searching for spies targeting foreign companies is in progress. In the name of national security, employees and executives of foreign companies are often investigated on espionage charges.

It is hardly strange that Chinese economic growth is slowing down, due to the structure of foreign companies being forced to leave China. As a result, the young unemployed are becoming a detonator of social anxiety that may explode at any time.

The letter sent by Xi to check on college students around China’s Youth Day on May 4 contained his deepening concerns.