U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday called China a "ticking time bomb" because of its economic challenges and said the country was in trouble because of weak growth.
More than a fifth of Chinese age 16 to 24 are out of work.
Spain and other southern EU countries have experienced this, and even higher unemployment rates in the past, but with China’s rather large population, we’re about 30 million young people in a country with few safety nets.
China’s economy barely grew in the second quarter from the first and youth unemployment hit a record high in June, providing evidence of a fading recovery.
So what is Xi going to do when these 30 million hit the streets to demonstrate? Draft them and attack Taiwan?
The situation isn't really a lack of jobs, it's that younger generations don't want to work the factory jobs (because they all studied for better jobs) and there is pressure to look after parents. Not only is there an imbalance in young vs old people due to the one child policy but China also passed a law that required children to provide mental and financial support to their parents. Some parents are effectively paying their children to look after them, thereby removing them from the workforce count.
Yeah I was going to say that seemed like a weird range to cherry pick. I have to imagine the 16-17 crowd in the US is like, 25-50% employed at best, and that's 2/9. 5-6/9 in that range are school age if you count college.