Disillusionment could harden into unrest, WSJ reports
China’s Generation Z expected a better life than their parents. Instead, they feel burned out and betrayed as good jobs become harder to get and the milestones of adulthood slip away, according to Hannah Miao’s reporting for The Wall Street Journal.
Born during China’s boom years, the generation is now entering adulthood with what Miao describes as “dwindling opportunities, fiercer competition and a growing sense of despondency that years of hard work won’t pay off.”
Two pressures are converging. A weakened economy and rapid AI adoption have shrunk the job market, the WSJ reports, just as a record crop of graduates enters the workforce. That squeeze is pushing millions into the precarious gig economy, while others buckle under a “cutthroat work culture.”
For now, the mood is “more resignation than anger.” Miao reports, however, that young people’s disillusionment could harden into something more dangerous for the Communist Party, like unrest, and could also have broader implications for China’s future.
The reporting appears in The 10-Point, a WSJ newsletter curated and edited by Morgan Smith and Bryony Watson in collaboration with Editor in Chief Emma Tucker.