In Covid Zero, Chinese youth apply ‘The philosophy of running away’

Four years ago, many young Chinese liked to use hashtagsGreat China.

Two years ago, they speak that China is the “A” student in pandemic control and called on the rest of the world, especially the United States, to “copy China’s homework.”

Now, many believe they are the unluckiest generation since the 1980s like Beijing persistent pursuit of the zero Covid policy is devastating. Jobs are hard to find. Regular Covid tests decide their lives. The government is increasingly imposing limitations about their personal freedom while promoting them to marry and have more children.

Cheng Xinyu, a 19-year-old writer from the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu, said: “I can’t stand the thought of dying in this place. fist fell on her.

Nor can she imagine having children in China.

“I like children but I don’t dare leave them here because I won’t be able to protect them,” she said, citing concerns such as pandemic control personnel breaking into the apartment to spray disinfectant, killing kill pets and ask residents to leave the key in their apartment door locks.

Ms. Cheng is part of a new trend called “operating philosophy“Or “runxue” preaches fleeing China in search of a safer and brighter future. She and millions of others also retweeted a video in which a young man fought back against police officers, who warned his family would be punished for three generations if he refused to go to the quarantine camp. “This will be our last generation,” he told police.

His response became an online meme that was later censored. Many young people agree with this sentiment, saying they would not want children under an increasingly authoritarian government.

“Not sending children to this country, to this land, would be the most charitable act I can manage,” one Weibo user wrote under the hashtag #thelastgeneration before it was censored. Another Weibo user wrote: “As ordinary people without personal dignity, reproductive organs will be our last resort.

The “running philosophy” and the “last generation” are the cries for help of many young Chinese in their 20s and 30s, who are frustrated about their country and their future. They are entering the workforce, getting married and deciding whether to have children in one of the country’s bleakest times in decades. Censored and politically suppressed, some are considering voting by foot while others want to protest by not having children.

This is a pretty big departure for members of a generation formerly known for national inclination.

They grew up as China rose to become the world’s second largest economy. They mocked critics of Beijing’s human rights record and boycott many western brands give a little sense of their homeland.

Sometimes they complain about Tired work schedule and lack increased social mobility. But if they are uncertain about their personal future, they are confident that China will be great again – as their highest leader. promised.

This spring, it became increasingly clear that the government cannot deliver on its promises and that the state has different expectations for their lives.

A new one survey out of more than 20,000 people, mostly women aged 18 to 31, showed that two-thirds of them did not want to have children. The government has a different agenda, pushing people to have three kids to rejuvenate one of the fastest aging populations in the world.

Doris Wang, a young professional in Shanghai, said that she never planned to have a baby in China. Living through harsh confinement over the past two months has reaffirmed her decision. Children should be allowed to play in nature and with each other, she said, but they are locked in apartments, undergoing rounds of Covid testing, yelled at by pandemic control officers and heard stern announcements. from street speakers.

“Even adults feel very depressed, hopeless and unhealthy, not to mention children,” she said. “They will definitely have psychological issues to deal with when they grow up.” She said that she plans to immigrate to a western country so that she can have a normal and dignified life.

Mixed with frustration, the newspaper is full of bad news about jobs. There will be more than 10 million university graduates in China this year, a record. But many businesses are laying off workers or headcounts are frozen as they try to survive shutdowns and crackdowns by regulators.

Zhaopin.com, a recruitment website, Find that its employment outlook index for the first quarter of this year was about half what it was in the same period last year and even lower than when the coronavirus first emerged in 2020. Good students Contracted businesses will be paid an average of 12% less per month than last year, the company report.

More and more college graduates are trying to get into graduate schools or pass increasingly competitive civil service exams for a guaranteed government job.

Two-thirds of the 131 new recruits of civil servants in Beijing’s Chaoyang district in April had a master’s or doctorate degree, according to a government documentreflect an increase trend. They graduated from top universities in China and around the world, including Peking University, University of Hong Kong, University of Sydney and Imperial College London. Many of them will do the most basic government jobs, jobs that were previously only filled with high school graduates.

A Ph.D. degree in particle physics graduates from Peking University to become an urban management officer, or chengguan, according to the report. Chengguan is most criticized officials, known for torturing beggars, chasing street vendors and assisting in tearing down people’s homes. The contrast is too rich.

One bright spot on the job market is Covid testing. As Beijing follows the zero Covid policy, local governments need a lot of people to staff their many testing stations. Henan Province in central China speak in January that it would train 50,000 people this year in Covid testing, disinfection and public hygiene management. But even a government-run news site request What career prospects do these jobs offer after the pandemic?

For young Chinese, the increasingly stringent social controls are equally sad.

Some students in Changchun in Jilin province, northeastern Jilin province, complained on social media that they couldn’t shower for more than 40 days as the city was closed and they couldn’t enter public baths.

Tongji University in Shanghai, known for its engineering and architecture programs, has issued detailed instructions on how to use a mobile phone-based queuing system for toilets and restrooms. birth, according to a document on the system reviewed by the New York Times.

The manual said each student would need to press “start” when leaving the dormitory to go to the bathroom, and “stop” when returning to avoid two people in the hallway at once. Each visit to the toilet is only allowed for a maximum of 10 minutes. After eight minutes, others in the queue can digitally puncture the student in the restroom. After 10 minutes, students need to explain to the queue group why it took so long.

Some social control mechanisms were never lifted.

In 2020, the prestigious Fudan University in Shanghai developed a tracking system that required its students to register their health status and real-time location daily. It is similar to systems that some countries, including South Korea, have developed for short-term monitoring of travelers at homes and hotels. Fudan students had to check in to the system on a daily basis, doing so even for a year and a half when there were very few infections in China. If they fail to do so, they will not be allowed on campus, according to a step-by-step application process reviewed by The New York Times.

Colleges have little tolerance for any act of disobedience.

Sun Jian, a graduate student at Ludong University in eastern Shandong province, was expelled at the end of March after he walked around campus holding a sign that read “Unlock Ludong”. He was also warned by the police for disturbing public order.

A college student in Shanghai told me her advisor was able to track her down because of a critical Weibo comment she made about the lockdown – even though she used a pen name. She was asked to delete the post.

It is impossible to measure how many young Chinese are disillusioned by the government’s iron fist during the most recent strikes, which have affected hundreds of millions of people. Beijing has complete control over propaganda media, the internet, books, schools, and nearly every aspect that can reach the brainwaves of the Chinese public.

But the growing online shift is unmistakable. And people will always find a way out of repression. In 1984, Winston kept a diary. In “The Unbearable Light of Being,” Tomáš and Tereza move to the countryside.

Ms. Wang, a young professional in Shanghai, said: “When you realize that as an individual you have no ability to resist the state apparatus, your only way is to run away.