Four years ago, many young Chinese used to use the # amazing china slogan.
Two years ago, they said that China was a student in control of the flu and urged the rest of the world to do the same.
Beijing's pursuit of the zero Covid policy is wreaking havoc as many believe that they are the most unlucky generation since the 1980s. It's hard to find jobs. Their lives are dictated by frequent Covid testing. The government is trying to force them to get married and have more children while imposing restrictions on their individual liberty.
Cheng Xinyu, a 19-year-old writer in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu who is thinking of moving to foreign countries, said that he can't stand the thought of dying in this place.
She can't imagine having children in China.
She said that she wouldn't dare to have children because she wouldn't be able to protect them.
Ms. Cheng is part of a new trend that preaches running away from China to find a safer and brighter future. She and millions of others reposted a video in which a young man pushed back against police officers who warned that his family would be punished for three generations if he refused to go to a camp.
His response became an online meme. Many young people said they would not want to have children under the current government.
Not bringing children to this country will be the most charitable deed I could manage.
Many young Chinese in their 20s and 30s despair about their country and their future because of the run philosophy and the last generation. They are entering the labor force, getting married, and deciding whether to have children in one of the country's bleakest moments in decades. Some people are considering voting with their feet while others want to not have children.
This is a departure for members of a generation that was known for their patriotism.
They grew up when China became the world's second biggest economy. They trolled critics of Beijing's human rights records and boycotted Western brands because of their slights of their motherland.
They complained about their work schedules and lack of social mobility. They were confident that China would be great again if they were less sure of their future.
The government can live up to its promises, but the state has different expectations for their lives.
A survey of more than 20,000 people found that two thirds don't want to have children. One of the fastest aging populations in the world is being pushed by the government to have three children.
She said that she had never intended to have children in China. In the past two months, she lived through a harsh lockdown. She said that children should be playing in nature and with each other, but they are locked up in apartments, going through Covid testing, and listening to loud announcements.
She said that adults and children will have psychological issues when they grow up.
The headlines are full of bad news about jobs. There will be a record 10 million college graduates in China this year. Many businesses are laying off workers or freezing head counts as they try to survive.
In the first quarter of this year, the job prospect index at Zhaopin.com was half that of the same period last year and even lower than when the coronaviruses first hit. The company reported that graduates who have signed offers will be paid 12 percent less per month than last year.
A growing number of college graduates are trying to get into graduate schools or take public servant exams to get a job in the government.
A government document shows that two thirds of new civil servants in Beijing's Chaoyang district in April had master's or doctorate degrees. They graduated from top universities in China and around the world. Many of them will be doing basic government jobs that used to be filled by high school graduates.
There is a new trick for internet censors. China's internet censors have relied on practices like suspending accounts and blocking words for years to control the internet. Fueling pitched online battles that link Chinese citizens with their national loyalty, they have turned to displaying users' locations on social media.
There is an uncertain harvest. After a disappointing winter wheat harvest in June, Chinese officials are warning that food prices could go up further because of bad weather in Asia and the United States.
There is a pause on wealth redistribution. For much of last year, China's top leader, Xi Jinping, waged a fierce campaign to narrow social inequalities, and ushered in a new era of common prosperity.
An urban management officer will be a graduate of particle physics from Peking University. Chengguan are known for brutality and assisting in tearing down people's homes. The contrast is very rich.
Covid testing is a bright spot in the job market. Local governments need a lot of people to staff their testing stations as Beijing sticks to the zero Covid policy. 50,000 people will be trained this year in Covid testing, disinfecting and public Sanitation management in the province. The government-run news site asked what kind of career prospects these jobs offered.
The social controls for the young Chinese are depressing.
Some students in Changchun in northeastern Jilin Province complained on social media that they couldn't shower for more than 40 days when the city was locked down.
According to a document reviewed by The New York Times, a mobile phone-based queuing system for the toilets and washrooms was issued by a university known for its engineering and architecture programs.
The instructions said that each student would need to press start when they left the dorm and stop when they returned to avoid two people in the hallway at the same time. 10 minutes is the maximum allowed for each toilet run. The others in the queue were able to poke the student in the toilet after eight minutes. The student would need to explain to the group why it took so long.
The social control mechanisms were never lifted.
In 2020, the prestigious Fudan University in Shanghai developed a tracking system that requires its students to register their health conditions and real-time locations everyday. It is similar to systems that some countries have developed to monitor travelers for short-term home and hotel stays. During the year and half when there were very few infections in China, Fudan students had to register in the system daily. They are not allowed onto the campus if they fail to register according to a process reviewed by The New York Times.
Universities have very little tolerance for disobedience.
Sun Jian, a graduate student at Ludong University in eastern Shandong Province, was expelled in late March after he walked around the campus holding a sign.
A college student in Shanghai told me that her adviser was able to track her down even though she used a different name. She was told to remove the post.
It is not possible to measure how many young Chinese have become disaffected by the government's iron fist in the latest lockdowns, which have affected hundreds of millions of people. Beijing has complete control over the propaganda outlets, the internet, the text books, the schools and nearly every aspect that could touch the brain waves of the Chinese public.
The growing online presence is unmistakable. People will always find ways to escape. In 1984 he wrote a diary. Tom and Tereza moved to the countryside.
When you find that you have no ability to fight back the state apparatus, it's time to run, said Ms. Wang, the young professional in Shanghai.
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