My Take | China still has a long way to go to make the ‘rural dream’ a reality

Name: Chinese farmers give up on making a living from the land despite government focus on food security
Uploaded: 2023-12-19T11:08:17.000Z
Duration: 6 min 14 s
Description: Chinese farmers give up on making a living from the land despite government focus on food security

State media is trying to paint a rosy picture of rural life to lure people to the countryside as the country’s economy struggles to get back on track

While city dwellers may face challenges such as high youth unemployment and a property market crash, serious inequalities remain embedded in society

Reading Time:3 minutes

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Farming incomes remain low and rural residents do not have access to some services available to city dwellers. (Xinhua/Tang Yi)

Josephine Ma

Published: 7:08pm, 19 Dec 2023Updated: 7:42pm, 19 Dec 2023

As China struggles with slow economic recovery and high youth unemployment rate, state media is now painting a rosy picture about the prospects for educated young people who want to move to the countryside to farm or start their own businesses.

Beijing stopped announcing the unemployment rate among young people after it reached a staggering 21.3 per cent in June this year.

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Chinese farmers give up on making a living from the land despite government focus on food security

But other signs of the pressures young people face can be found everywhere – such as the scramble among graduates to get jobs on the government payroll because of the stability these careers offer, or warnings to parents that their children may need months, or even years, to get on the career ladder.

Life in cities is also getting more difficult due to the high cost of living, a meltdown in the property market and the relatively low salaries on offer for those who can secure jobs.

Videos recording the day-to-day struggles of ordinary city dwellers have proved enormously popular on social media, including an account that attracted more than 400,000 followers on Douyin – the Chinese version of TikTok – by a couple from Zhengzhou in the central province of Henan.

Zhang Yiliang and his wife Dong Lijun, both in their 30s, have documented how they are spending most of their earnings on paying the mortgage on a flat that has not yet been finished and have been forced to skimp on food after Dong’s salary was cut.

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.css-1m2rp1p{color:#34b8b5;}My Take | China still has a long way to go to make the ‘rural dream’ a reality

My Take | China still has a long way to go to make the ‘rural dream’ a reality