Millions of Chinese Apply for Limited Supply of Government Jobs | China Truths

Welcome to China Truths. Today we will bring you the following stories. Millions of Chinese apply for limited supply of government jobs. Chinese youths start new losing-my-mind trend amid high jobless rate. EU says significant gaps remain with China in EV tariff negotiations. US Department of Justice indicts eight Chinese companies for allegedly distributing and manufacturing fentanyl. Now, let's dive into the details. It's all covered in today's China Truths. Millions of Chinese apply for limited supply of government jobs. The job applications in the public sector have hit a record high amid China's unemployment crisis and gloomy economy. For the 39,700 job positions in central government agencies opening up in 2025 in China, 3.25 million applicants are competing with registrations for China's national civil service examinations already closed on October 24. The Chinese government jobs have for the past decades been considered by Chinese as iron rice bowls for their job security, stability, and benefits. The number of applicants this year has set a new record high, with an increase of more than 340,000 from last year. The most competitive position has drawn 16,700 applicants. It's a staff member position in the liaison department of the China Vocational Education Society, as the requirements for this position are relatively loose, with minimum requirements being a university bachelor's degree that is open to a wide range of majors. There are no restrictions on grassroots work and no household registration restrictions. Candidates from all over China are eligible to apply, according to major Chinese financial media iqai.com. The largest number of applicants by city was 250,000 in Guangdong, followed by 230,000 in Beijing. But the fiercest competition is in Tibet, with an average of 150 people competing for one position. Currently, the unemployment rate among young people aged 16 to 24 in China, excluding students, remains over 17 percent, and the corresponding number of unemployed young people may reach more than 30 million, according to estimates by Chinese media. Meanwhile, China's GDP grew by 4.6 percent in the third quarter, below the 5 percent official target and marking the lowest since 2023. The continued economic decline has made the job market even bleaker. In recent years, China's civil servants and government employees have had their salaries significantly reduced, and some have had to retire early, due to the huge government debts that are still accruing. Despite the declining salaries of civil servants, the high unemployment rate among young people, especially the unresolved employment problem of fresh graduates, has prompted many young people to consider civil service examinations as their option for job stability, Sun Kuxiang, a professor of international affairs and business at Nanhui University in Taiwan, told the Epoch Times on October 26. As to the salary cut of civil servants in many places in China, Sun said it mainly reflects China's economic structural problems and financial pressure. The fiscal pressure on China's local governments has been increasing in recent years, especially due to the impact of the real estate market downturn, COVID-19 control expenditures, debt burdens, etc. The revenue of many local governments is insufficient to support their original expenditure levels, Sun said. The salary cuts reflect the reduction of local government revenue and the increase of debt burden. China's new college graduates reached 11.79 million in 2024, and the expected number of college graduates in 2027 is close to 14 million. Su Xin, a senior professional in China's capital market, told the Epoch Times on October 26 that compared to the huge number of graduates, the civil service examination for the limited government jobs is basically for show and cannot solve major problems. Moreover, there are many deals behind the scenes. Su said that the lasting high unemployment crisis reflects the severe situation of China's economy caused by the CCP's administrative intervention. The real estate industry has a huge impact on the economy and it started to decline in 2017. The digital economy cannot fill the vacuum left by the real estate recession. Sun noted that Beijing's stimulus policy has not shown any effect on the real economy. At present, China's small and medium-sized enterprises and private enterprises still face financing difficulties, and there is insufficient demand in many industries, thus affecting economic growth and employment growth. When policies fail to bring about new job opportunities quickly and effectively, it becomes a rational response for young people to choose more stable civil service positions. The key is whether China's economy can have structural reforms. Su pointed out that the Chinese economy is a transfusion economy. Once overseas investment and export orders decrease, the Chinese economy will have problems. He said, the decrease in export orders, the withdrawal of foreign capital, and the continued economic downturn have brought about a wave of bankruptcies and unemployment in private enterprises. The internal causes are administrative intervention, the decline of the real estate industry, and the rise of artificial intelligence, which have caused a wave of bankruptcies and unemployment in the private economy. These are like dominoes and have spread to various industries, regions, and aspects. The CCP's economy is already terminally ill. Su advised people who are unemployed and recent graduates to have a clear understanding of China's economy. Perhaps some people still have illusions about it. The current series of CCP operations that are against market rules, such as lowering interest rates and reserve requirements, converting debt into stocks, and establishing a combined police-tax operations, are all centered around squeezing the last wealth out of the people. If you don't have a job, perhaps doing nothing and reducing spending is the best option. His suggestion for new graduates is to recognize the economic situation, lower expectations, survive first, be kind to people and things around you, and be tolerant when encountering things. Chinese youth start new losing-my-mind trend amid high jobless rate. Faced with grim career prospects, China's youths are coping with stress and frustration through unconventional ways. A sense of frustration hangs over China's younger generation as the youth unemployment rate remains high. A growing number of young Chinese are starting a losing-my-mind trend as a way to alleviate stress and anxiety. China's National Bureau of Statistics announced on October 22 the latest youth unemployment rate, for ages 16 to 24, which was about 18% in September. The number was based on a changed methodology, excluding youth enrolled in schools, following Beijing's decision to suspend the publication of youth unemployment data after the figure climbed to a record high of 21% in June 2023. Tens of millions of college graduates just out of school this summer strain the labor market further. Faced with grim career prospects, a new losing-my-mind trend has begun to take hold among Chinese youth. Hundreds of posts went viral on social media, with youths posing in hospital gowns at mountains, grasslands, seashores, deserts, and other tourist spots in cities and regions such as Shanghai, Harbin, Sichuan, and Xinjiang, especially during the week-long statutory holiday on October 1, the 75th anniversary of the founding of communist China. Those posts shared hashtags such as mentally ill, psychiatric dress, curing a depleted mental state, and fun. This way of relaxing has garnered a positive response from netizens, with many expressing a desire to join in. Some China observers say that the Chinese youth's mimicry of a person with a mental health condition serves as an escape from the heavy pressures of life and the draconian rules imposed by the Chinese government. The latest trend builds on the Lying Flat movement, making no effort to get ahead in society that began in 2021 and the Let It Rot movement, doing nothing to curb one's deteriorating situation, in 2022. Some travel agencies have developed new programs to organize tours featuring psychiatric-themed clothing. One agency in China's southern Hunan province recently told the Epoch Times that such programs are quite popular among young people. According to one of the agency's employees, who requested to remain anonymous, dressing up in hospital gowns and hanging out with strangers could help their clients forget about their problems. The living and working environments in China are challenging, with people suffering from numerous anxieties and who generally feel very exhausted, she said. Xin Xue, a Chinese writer living in Canada, told the Epoch Times that the hardships of life amid the country's economic downturn have left the Chinese people unable to envision a stable future. She said that in addition to financial struggles, people also live under the Chinese government's long-standing censorship of speech and suppression of dissent, which creates an atmosphere of fear and pressure that affects their daily lives, pushing many to the brink of madness. Since 2020, China's COVID-19 measures have resulted in an outflow of billions of dollars in foreign direct investment and sluggish operations in many industries. Millions of people have been experiencing pay cuts or unemployment. According to official data, net foreign direct investment outflow was about $113 billion in the first half of 2024, compared to a net annual inflow of about $120 billion a decade ago. Quarterly net outflows began last year. However, due to Chinese authorities' past record of underreporting and covering up information, it is difficult to assess the true situation of China's economy. Xiaoman, a pseudonym, lost her job half a year ago. She was a computer programmer in Guangzhou, one of China's most prosperous industrial cities. Some factories in the Internet-related industry have downsized, laying off thousands of workers. I'm one of them, and my classmates have also lost their jobs," she told The Epoch Times. Xiaoman said she is still job hunting but feels hopeless. Sun Jiayu, pseudonym, moved from Shandong province to Beijing nine years ago. She works 12 hours daily as a food delivery worker to support her high school daughter. The number of delivery workers in Beijing has surged threefold, leading to competition and a significant decline in their earnings, she said. Among the newcomers are recent university graduates who, faced with a challenging job market, are turning to this gig economy to make ends meet. In the industry's boom years, Sun said, she earned more than 10,000 yuan, or about $1,400, a month. Now, she earns between 6,000 and 7,000 yuan, or from about $840 to $985. The cost of living in Beijing is fairly high, and I have to scrimp and save to put money aside, she told The Epoch Times. Wage earners in the sales sector also face hardships due to declining consumer demand and consumption. Lu Ming, 25 years old, from Anyang, Hunan province, works as a livestock salesman. He told The Epoch Times that he cannot financially support himself and partly relies on his parents. Feeling dejected, he said, I can't even get by now. How can I think about the future? EU says significant gaps remain with China in EV tariff negotiations. The European Union said on October 25 that there are still significant remaining gaps in negotiations aimed at avoiding high tariffs on electric vehicles, or EVs, made in China, which are due to take effect next week. The EU's trade chief, Valdis Dombrovskis, held a virtual meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Wentao, on October 25, as part of the ongoing discussion to address Brussels's concerns over subsidized EVs imported from China, according to the European Commission. The principals took stock of the progress made during eight technical negotiating rounds, as well as significant remaining gaps, a readout of the video call states. They agreed that further technical negotiations would take place shortly. The European Commission is nearing the conclusion of an investigation into Chinese EVs launched by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen a year ago. Preliminary findings released in June have revealed that automakers in China benefit from unfair state subsidies, threatening to hurt the EU's homegrown auto businesses. As a result, Brussels has proposed to impose tariffs of up to 36.6%, on top of the current 10%, on EVs made in China, saying the step is necessary to level the playing field. In a bid to avoid the duties, China has proposed to set minimum prices for its EV imports, a mechanism known as price undertaking. The European Commission said last month that it's open to negotiations but emphasized that any minimum price offer should align with World Trade Organization, WTO, rules and offset the injuries caused by Beijing's state subsidies. However, earlier this month, Beijing warned the EU against consulting separately with individual carmakers, saying that EV manufacturers have authorized the industrial group, the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products, CCCME, to present price commitment plans that reflect the industry's collective stance. If the European side conducts separate price commitment consultations with some companies while negotiating with China, it will shake the foundation and mutual trust of the negotiations, China's commerce ministry said in a statement issued on October 12. During the video conference on October 25, Dombrovskis emphasized that, per the WTO rules, the possibility to offer price undertakings is open to the different companies participating in the investigation, according to the readout. He told Wang that the European Commission's negotiations with the CCCME do not exclude discussions with individual exporters, according to the readout. If no consensus is reached, the new duties on Chinese EVs will kick in on October 31. Beijing has repeatedly protested against this move and responded with a series of anti-dumping investigations against various imported products from the bloc, including brandy, pork, and dairy. Following the EU's vote to hike duties on Chinese EVs for the next five years, China's commerce ministry announced provisional measures targeting EU brandy imports, with French cognac being the main target. The EU has said it would challenge China's decision at the WTO, pledging to confront any unfair use of trade defense instruments against its economy with utmost seriousness. Brussels has ramped up efforts to push back against Beijing's unfair trade policies. According to the European Commission's chief trade enforcer, Denis Ridenet, 75 per cent of trade investigations initiated last year targeted imports from China. That is not a surprise, given the distortions we see there, Ridenet told the European Parliament's trade committee on October 14. Amid growing pressure from Brussels, Janka Ordel, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, a Berlin-based think tank, sees the Chinese government at a crossroads, but neither path appears promising. Beijing could start a full-on trade war by increasing tariffs on European imports or by restricting exports of critical goods to select European countries, and see whether this can force member states to oppose Brussels's plans of further measures. Alternatively, it could embed itself deeper in Europe's industrial ecosystem, seek compromise, and adhere to data localization, local content, and financial transparency requirements, Ordel said in an October 25 report. The latter is politically unlikely, while the former may be too costly given China's tottering economy, if member states back Brussels and call Beijing's bluff. U.S. Department of Justice indicts eight Chinese companies for allegedly distributing and Eight China-based companies and eight Chinese nationals have been charged with federal crimes related to trafficking synthetic opioids and fentanyl precursors, the Department of Justice announced on October 24. The defendants openly advertised their ability to thwart border officials, used evasive tactics such as mislabeling the contents of shipments, and had shipped a stable supply of precursor chemicals to clients in the United States and Mexico for years, according to the DOJ's press release, citing the unsealed indictments. The global fentanyl supply chain, which ends with the deaths of Americans, often starts with chemical companies based in China, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement, according to the press release. Mexican cartels have been buying precursor chemicals from China and then combining the chemicals into fentanyl and distributing them to the United States. In order to break this critical link in the fentanyl supply chain, the Justice Department has aggressively investigated and prosecuted these companies. We will continue to target every organization and individual that fuels the deadly drug trade, Garland added. In May, the International Journal of Drug Policy published a report saying that law enforcement seized more than 115 million pills containing illicit fentanyl in 2023, an increase of 2,300 times the nearly 50,000 seized in 2017. Derek Mounts, former head of special operations at the Drug Enforcement Administration, DEA, told the Epoch Times last month that the Chinese government is using drugs as part of its unrestricted warfare game against the United States. For the third time in over a year, DEA investigations have resulted in charges against chemical companies and individuals in China who we allege are supplying chemicals to cartels to make deadly fentanyl, DEA Administrator Ann Milgram said in a statement. While they may go to great lengths to try to evade our detection, DEA will use every tool and authority we have to save American lives. The fentanyl crisis has devastated many American families and claimed many lives. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of fentanyl deaths was 74,702 in 2023, slightly down from 76,226 in 2022. One of the company's facing charges is Wuhan Mingyue Information Technology, which is based in northern China's Hubei province. In January, the company was charged with attempted importation of fentanyl precursors and attempted money laundering, along with a Chinese national named Huanhuang Song, who allegedly held a Bitcoin wallet and a Western Union account for remitting payments for the company's precursor chemicals. The indictment included encrypted conversations between Wuhan Mingyue and an undercover DEA special agent who pretended to be a broker. The company agreed to ship one of the agent's purchases to an address in Tampa, Florida. In one conversation, the company touted that it had no problems with Mexico customs when it shipped drugs packaged in white bottles by air to Mexico City. Shanghai Senria Biotechnology, based in Shanghai, was charged with attempted importation of protonetazine, a synthetic opioid, and attempted international money laundering in June. Also charged was a Chinese national named Jin Buhan, who allegedly held a Bitcoin wallet associated with the company. According to the indictment, Shanghai Senria openly advertises the sale of its synthetic opioids to the United States, Mexico, Canada, and Europe via the Internet. In November last year, Wuhan Jinxiang Import and Export Trading and Hubei was charged with attempted importation of protonetazine, attempted importation of a fentanyl precursor, and attempted international money laundering. Wenying Nia, a Chinese national who allegedly held a Bitcoin wallet associated with the company, was also charged. When a DEA undercover agent asked Wuhan Jinxiang about payment options, the company said, use Bitcoin. It's quick and easy, according to the indictment. When asked whether shipping to the United States or Mexico would be more secure, Wuhan Jinxiang replied, we guarantee 100% safe delivery, shipped in the name of electronic products or cosmetics. In January, Guangzhou Tanyue Chemical, based in southern China's Guangdong Province, was charged with attempted importation of protonetazine, along with Chinese national Xiaojun Huang, who allegedly held a Bitcoin wallet on behalf of the company. According to the indictment, Guangzhou Tanyue told a DEA undercover agent that the company sent more than 20 kilograms of its drugs to the United States, Africa, Canada, and other countries every month. The other companies and associated individuals charged with related crimes are Hubei Xiangling Trading and Zhihan Wang, Jiangsu Ji Chemical and Ji Zhaowei, Tianjin Furuntanda Tech and Wensheng Gao, and Hunan Omeng Trade and Inxia Xiao. Five of the eight companies charged have ceased operations, including Wuhan Jinxiang and Wuhan Mingyue, according to the DOJ.