China’s people are on a grueling treadmill

Essentially, it seems as if Chinese people — especially young people — are stuck on a treadmill. China’s young people are studying hard, getting a college education and putting in grueling, long work hours.

And yet youth unemployment rates are rising relentlessly, many college graduates can’t find the kind of white-collar work they trained for and wage growth is sluggish. To a huge number of Chinese people, the modern Chinese economy is less of a “Chinese Dream” than a Sisyphean nightmare.

In fact, the word “treadmill” also hearkens to where China’s problems began. Way back in 2010, hedge fund manager Jim Chanos declared that China’s real estate market was on a “treadmill to hell.” That prediction was way too early — the real estate market probably didn’t become a bubble until the late 2010s and didn’t begin to crash until near the end of 2021.

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