On October 28, an incident occurred at Zhongguancun No. 3 Elementary School in Beijing, where a knife-wielding assailant injured at least five people, including three children. (Video Screenshot)
October 29, 2024 – A casual glance through Chinese news reveals a cascade of chaos and unending tragedies, resembling an apocalyptic scene, with the suffering squarely on the shoulders of the people. This article provides a few examples with brief commentary.
1. Social Retaliation Incidents: Frequent Attacks on Schoolchildren, Foreigners, and Random Individuals
Beijing Haidian Police Bulletin: On October 28, around 15:20, a knife attack occurred near the intersection of Wanquan Zhuang Road and Wanliu Middle Road in Haidian District, injuring five pedestrians, including three minors. The bulletin reportedly downplayed the incident details. In reality, the attack took place at Zhongguancun Third Primary School, where three children were injured, two of them severely. One child, attempting to shield their head, had their finger severed in the process.
Incidents of this nature have become widespread in China. For instance, on the night of October 23 in Qingdao, Shandong Province, a concrete mixer truck rammed multiple vehicles; on October 8, in Guangzhou's Tianhe District, a man in his sixties attacked people at an elementary school gate, injuring three, including two students. On September 30 at 21:00, a 37-year-old man carried out an indiscriminate knife attack at a Walmart in Shanghai's Songjiang District, resulting in three deaths and 15 injuries. The police reported that the man had been struggling for a long time to recover unpaid wages, his life deteriorated, and he ultimately developed a desire to lash out at society.
These attacks have not only targeted Chinese citizens but also foreigners. On September 19, a 10-year-old boy at a Japanese school in Shenzhen was killed by an attacker roughly 200 meters from the school entrance. On June 24, a man boarded a bus full of Japanese elementary school children in Suzhou and injured three Japanese children, with one Chinese woman onboard intervening (who later succumbed to her injuries), preventing even greater harm. On June 10, four American teachers in North Mountain Park, Jilin City, Jilin Province, were stabbed, bleeding and lying on the ground.
Similar incidents have also occurred abroad. For example, on August 27, a 33-year-old Chinese student in Australia threw hot coffee on a 9-month-old baby boy.
Why is there an influx of such violent acts in China? Many believe the root cause lies in the oppressive rule of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). On one hand, the CCP embraces violence, with incidents involving urban management officers and police fatally injuring people being common; the entire regime operates like an organized crime syndicate. On the other hand, the CCP restricts religious freedom, suppresses faith, and dismantles traditional culture and ethics, leaving people without faith and unafraid of consequences, eroding their moral baseline. Consequently, societal aggression has been brewing for a long time, turning many from victims of government actions into individuals seeking revenge on society.
2. Infighting at the Top, Mafia-like Behavior at the Bottom, and Corruption Beyond Redemption
CCDI Anti-Corruption Data: From January to September this year, China registered 642,000 anti-corruption cases, including 58 cases involving provincial and ministerial-level officials, 3,263 cases involving departmental-level officials, 26,000 cases at the county level, and 89,000 at the township level. Additionally, 77,000 village party branch secretaries or village committee directors were investigated, showing that corruption has permeated every level.
The 58 cases involving provincial and ministerial-level officials in the first nine months alone indicate that this year’s number of investigated top-level officials has already exceeded last year’s total, reaching a historical high. Notably, these "centrally managed officials," who generally occupy senior ministerial or departmental roles, are estimated to total around 3,000 active members. Since Xi Jinping assumed office at the end of 2012 and launched his unprecedented anti-corruption drive, the number of central-level officials implicated each year includes 31 in 2013, 38 in 2014, 37 in 2015, 22 in 2016, 18 in 2017, 23 in 2018, 20 in 2019, 18 in 2020, 25 in 2021, 32 in 2022, and at least 45 in 2023. The sharp increase in 2024 reflects an intensified internal struggle.
Furthermore, the 77,000 cases involving current or former village party branch secretaries and village committee directors in the first nine months surpass the previous year's total of 61,000, indicating pervasive corruption at the grassroots level. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, China has over 600,000 village (or community) committees. In recent years, the CCP has shifted left, with village committee director and party branch secretary roles increasingly held by the same individual, placing the number of these officials nationwide around 700,000. With over 10% of these positions under investigation this year, it suggests that the "Three-Year Special Anti-Crime Campaign" launched in 2018, aimed at eradicating organized crime and rooting out “protection umbrellas” for corruption, has failed.
An example of the corruption at the village level comes from Chinese media: on October 27, a party branch secretary in Heilongjiang drew internet attention for visiting impoverished households while sporting a Hermès belt and allegedly driving a Toyota Land Cruiser worth over a million yuan.
3. Persistently High Youth Unemployment and the Emergence of a "Stalled Generation"
In August this year, a report from the International Labour Organization showed that the global youth labor market outlook had improved over the past four years, with the youth unemployment rate at 13% in 2023, equating to 64.9 million people, marking the lowest level in 15 years; it is expected that the global youth unemployment rate will further decrease to 12.8% over the next two years.
However, the situation in China is the opposite. Since 2020, the youth unemployment rate has soared, reaching a record 21.3% in June last year (for the 16-24 age group), leading the authorities to temporarily stop publishing youth unemployment rates. Even after the “further refinement and optimization” of statistical methods, in August this year, the national urban youth unemployment rate for ages 16 to 24, excluding those in school, still reached 18.8%; in September, it remained at 17.6%, the second highest this year.
A study conducted last year by Peking University showed that approximately 96 million urban residents in China are between the ages of 16 and 24, of which about half are in school, another 33 million are working or seeking employment, and the remaining 16 million (about 17%) are unaccounted for. The study suggests that if young people who are not studying, not employed, and not in training are included, China’s youth unemployment rate could be as high as 46.5%. In other words, about 22 million young people are unemployed. Columbia University sociologist Yao Lu estimates that about 25% of Chinese university graduates aged 23 to 35 are currently working in positions below their educational level. Reuters reports that more than 200 million people in China are engaged in the gig economy. A report from the China Macroeconomic Forum, a think tank at Renmin University of China, states that youth unemployment may not be resolved within the next decade; “if not handled properly, besides economic issues, it may trigger other social problems, and could even become the fuse for political issues.”
The 22 million unemployed youth have also given rise to a popular online term—“unfinished kids.” This borrows from the phenomenon of China’s tens of millions of “unfinished buildings” that remain incomplete, symbolizing many Chinese youth who, despite having university degrees, are unable to find employment and whose lives, like “unfinished buildings,” are forced to come to a halt. Some people are compelled to accept low-wage jobs (for example, a 24-year-old physics master’s degree holder working as a middle school janitor, or a Stanford PhD in applied physics taking a basic civil service job in Xiao County, Anhui Province), while others face long-term unemployment.
Against this backdrop, it is not difficult to understand: (1) Why the number of people taking the civil service exam continues to reach new highs, with 3.4 million people competing in this year’s “national exam” (340,000 more than last year), with some positions attracting over 10,000 applicants per spot; (2) the development of “Ten No Youth” from the “lying flat” mentality—meaning no blood donation, no donations, no marriage, no children, no home purchases, no lottery tickets, no stock market participation, no fund investments, no help to the elderly, and no emotional response—encompasses the basic scope of life and investment for Chinese people, reflecting a deep-seated sense of despair and disillusionment about the future. Some netizens summarize young people’s future choices as only—“lie, grind, migrate, chive, sacrifice” (lie flat, internal competition, emigration, “chive” symbolizing exploitation, and “sacrifice” symbolizing blind patriotism).
Of course, many young people have also taken to protesting against the CCP. For instance, the “White Paper Movement” in 2022, led by young people, pushed the CCP to cancel the “Zero-COVID” policy. Additionally, young people have engaged in soft resistance during Halloween. Last year, there were many role-playing protests in Shanghai criticizing current affairs; this year, young people in cities like Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Guangzhou, disregarding police dispersal and arrests, took to the streets early in various “costumes” (Cosplay).
Conclusion
The CCP has wreaked havoc for a century, leaving a once-civilized nation in shambles, making it so that today, the vast majority of Chinese people cannot live well or even make ends meet. After all, as descendants of an ancient civilization, the Chinese people possess humanity, courage, the ability to reflect, and a natural instinct for self-rescue. For the sake of themselves and their children, Chinese people, stand up like human beings! After all, the end of the CCP is near—who would be willing to sacrifice themselves for the CCP?
Originally published by The Epoch Times
Editor: Gao Yi
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