Bharat Rakshak

China's economic development and industrialisation have been impressive.

This thread will be a look beyond the Potomkin society to understand the costs of autocratic, nonorganic that is state-directed economic development. Can China really be a template for India? What are the costs of industrialising a medieval society?

China cadmium spill threatens drinking water for millions

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/ ... IN20120127

A cancer-causing cadmium discharge from a mining company has polluted a long stretch of two rivers in southern China, and officials warned some 3.7 million people of Liuzhou in the Guangxi region to avoid drinking water from the river..


New Food Scare: Some Cadmium With Your Rice?

http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2011 ... your-rice/

Move aside, melamine. Cadmium-tainted rice might be China’s new scare of the season.

In a recent study, researchers from the Nanjing Agricultural University found 10 to 60 percent of the rice sold in markets in six regions contained cadmium, a heavy metal associated with high blood pressure, fluid accumulation in the lungs and a potentially fatal softening of the bones.

In some samples, the cadmium level was found to be equal to five times of the legal maximum, the researchers said..



’m not too picky about every single food item, but rice is the most important thing, so I want the cleanest,” said Xu, a 28-year-old office worker in Beijing, chatting as she shopped for groceries in an organic supermarket.

“Everyone knows rice from the south might be contaminated so I want rice from the north, or even something imported.”

On a scale of China’s food safety issues, pollution-tainted rice might just be the biggest problem of all. Rice is the country’s national staple, a grain deeply intertwined with history, culture and all things Chinese.

Though rice farming is on the decline as the country grows wealthier and more urban, China still produces almost one-third of the world’s rice. It is also the No. 1 consumer of rice.


http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news ... al-economy

So when reports came out earlier this year indicating that up to 10 percent of China’s domestically grown rice, and a total of 12 million tons of all grains, might be contaminated by heavy metals in polluted soil, consumers were understandably worried.

http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/sh ... e-trail-2-

In 2006, Wang Guoxiang, vice-chair of the Xiangtan Environmental Protection Association took urine samples from 500 residents living near Zhuzhou city and drinking water from the Xiang River. The samples were analysed by a medical institution in Changsha, with shocking results: 30% contained excessive levels of cadmium. Of these, 10% had high enough levels to require specialist treatment under state standards for prevention of occupational disease.

Various restrictions prevented Wang from carrying out further studies, but some researchers have said they believe cadmium-contaminated rice, as well as the river water, may have contributed to the result, as contaminated rice has been found on the market in Xiangtan.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1507512/posts


Parasite eggs were found during government tests of nine main dishes for possible content of harmful material. The tests were conducted amid growing concern over tainted Chinese imports such as kimchi, tea and seafood like eels.


The parasite eggs are roundworms indicating fecal contamination-yummmmy.


http://www.spiegel.de/international/wor ... 61406.html

Chinese producers have also sold peas dyed green, which lost their color when cooked, fake pigs' ears and cabbage containing carcinogenic formaldehyde. Then there was the cooking oil that was captured in restaurant drains, reprocessed, rebottled and resold. The government newspaper China Daily has even reported on fake eggs.

Wu Heng has risen to become a prominent food-safety advocate in China. Last spring, Wu read about a strange powder that dealers were adding to pork so that they could sell it as beef, which is more expensive. Wu quickly developed an aversion to noodle dishes listed as containing beef.


Zhou notes that farmers used to eat the same foods they sold. But now that they are aware of the harmful effects of pesticides, fertilizers, hormones and antibiotics, they still produce a portion of their farm products for the market and a portion for their own families. The only difference is that the food for their families is produced using traditional methods. In fact, many wealthy Chinese have bought their own farms so as not to be dependent on what's available in supermarkets. There are also reports of special plots of land used to produce food exclusively for senior government officials.

The Chinese government introduced a new food safety law in 2009 and established a food safety commission in 2010. In addition, consumers who report illegal activities will reportedly receive monetary rewards.

But there are still many problems, as evidenced by an early warning system in Brussels designed to detect contaminated food and animal feed products for all EU countries, which disproportionately flags products originating in China. By last Friday, 262 reports on Chinese products had been received in Brussels for 2012 alone. They included noodles infested with maggots, shrimp contaminated with antibiotics, foul-smelling peanuts and candied fruit with an excessively high sulfur content (see graphic).

The world's largest retail chains, Walmart, Carrefour, Tesco and Metro, as well as producers like Coca-Cola, Unilever, Barilla, Campbell's and Nestlé, have recognized that they cannot rely on inspections from suppliers or governments. But they also can't afford to sell contaminated food products, given the potentially immense harm to their image. This is why the biggest companies in the industry have joined forces to form the Global Food Safety Initiative, with the aim of developing their own quality controls.

http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2012/10/eu ... nese-food/

Cypriot inspectors found arsenic in the frozen calamari. The Italians discovered maggots in the pasta. There were glass chips in the pumpkin seeds bound for Denmark, and Spanish regulators blocked a shipment of frozen duck meat because of forged papers. It has been a rough year for Chinese food exports to Europe.


http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/201 ... yt&emc=rss


A month after large batches of Chinese baby formula were found to contain dangerous levels of mercury, state media outlets reported Monday that the authorities have discovered more shipments of contaminated formula, this time poisoned with a cancer-causing toxin.

And of course: http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2012/05/ch ... esh-pills/

South Korea has intensified a crackdown on the smuggling of capsules from China containing the powdered flesh of dead babies, taken by some as a cure for disease or a way to boost sexual performance, a customs official said Tuesday.

The gruesome practice came to light Sunday when Korea Customs said it had uncovered 35 attempts to import a total of 17,451 such capsules since last August.

The customs service said that apart from ethical questions the capsules were contaminated with “super bacteria” and other disease-causing organisms.

Most pills were sent from the northeastern Chinese cities of Yanji and Jilin as well as cities including Qingdao and Tianjin at the request of customers in South Korea, it said.

So how do Chinese take satisfaction in India making it to the worst of environmental air quality? Why, by not being diligent enough to measure or report key parameters such as PM2.5 (until recently). There problem solved.

And when it is reported the smog takes on Chinese characteristics.


Official Beijing city readings on Saturday suggested pollution levels of over 400. An unofficial reading from a monitor at the US embassy recorded levels of over 800.


In the meantime some estimate that up to 500,000 Chinese die each year from the degraded air quality alone.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012 ... china.html

Soil contamination concerns
China also has problems with soil contamination from arsenic and other heavy metals from mines and factories. Zhou Jianmin, director of the China Soil Association, told the Guardian last month that he estimated that one-tenth of China’s farmland was affected. Soil contamination could have potentially dire consequences for food production and human health, scientists told the Guardian

"The country, the government and the public should realize how serious the soil pollution is,” Jianmin said. “More areas are being affected, the degree of contamination is intensifying and the range of toxins is increasing."

Water pollution is also a growing challenge. China's own government has admitted that about 14 per cent of China's water sources had unqualified drinking water and that 11.4 per cent of water supplies to cities were unsafe.

Government statistics from 2009 reveal that nearly 20 per cent of the length of China's monitored rivers and lakes had pollution worse than Grade 5, making the water officially unfit for even irrigating crops, Reuters reported.

The concern now is that the health impact from pollution is chipping away at the economic gains made due to industrialization.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2 ... -challenge

Other estimates of soil pollution range as high as 40%, but an official risk assessment is unlikely to be made public for several years.

The government has spent six years on a soil survey involving 30,000 people, but the academics leading the project said they have been forbidden from releasing preliminary findings.

Chen Tongbin of the Chinese Academy of Sciences said the worst contamination was in Yunnan, Sichuan, Hunan, Anhui and Guizhou, but there were also parts of Beijing where the soil is tainted.

Unlike in Europe where persistent organic pollutants are the main concern, Chen said China's worst soil contamination is from arsenic, which is released during the mining of copper, gold and other minerals. Roughly 70% of the world's arsenic is found in China – and it is increasingly coming to the surface with horrendous consequences.

"When pollution spills cause massive die-offs of fish, the media usually blames cadmium, but that's wrong. Arsenic is responsible. This is the most dangerous chemical," he said. The country's 280,000 mines are most responsible, according to Chen.

But the land – and food chain – are also threatened by lead and heavy metals from factories and overuse of pesticides and fertilisers by farmers. The risks are only slowly becoming well known. The Economic Information Daily reported this week that pollution ruins almost 12bn kilograms of food production each year, causing economic losses of 20 billion yuan.

Chen estimated that "no more than 20% of China's soil is seriously polluted", but he warned that the problem was likely to grow because 80% of the pollutants in the air and water ended up in the earth.

http://www.china.org.cn/environment/201 ... 629451.htm


Hundreds of severe pollution incidents have occurred across China since 2008, includes 30 incidents of heavy metal pollution.

The Liuyang cadmium pollution incident in Hunan Province in 2009 had polluted the surrounding farmlands and forests, resulting in two deaths and 500 more to be detected with excessive cadmium in their bloodstreams. Heavy metal cadmium is an extremely toxic chemical element commonly found in industrial workplaces, particularly where any ore is being processed or smelted.

The amount of grain contaminated by heavy metal is as high as 12 million tons, causing direct economic loss of over 20 billion yuan (over US$317 million), estimated by department of environmental protection.

Over-the-limit amount of heavy metal cadmium has found in 10 percent of rice in the Chinese market, according to a nationwide survey by Pan. He said: "The cadmium-filled rice carries fatal health risks to self-sufficient farmers."

Elements of heavy metal found in farmlands can severely affect children's growth and even cause cancer.

Similarly, pesticide and chemical fertilizers as also pose serious threats to the public's health. As much as 1.3 million tons of pesticide is being used by China's agricultural industry, 2.5 times that of the world average. What's worse: Over 99.9 percent of the total usage of pesticide does nothing but pollute the farming products and the environment, and only 0.1 percent is effective for the elimination of diseases and pests, according to studies by Yunnan Agricultural University.

"The pollution is spreading," Pan said. The toxic chemicals in the soil have been found in agricultural and material processing industries, in urban and rural areas, and in surface and subsurface layers. They have also been detected in areas along river streams from upstream to downstream, and the water and soil contaminant had led to the manufacturing chain of China's food supplies, which could explain the frequency of pollution incidents.

Don’t Eat The Broccoli In China


http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/11 ... -in-china/



China has the worst pollution problems in the world. And it is getting worse as the utterly unchecked rush to industrialization continues. Much of this is pollution is linked to coal mining and power generation, but the sources of toxins are myriad.

While air and water pollution are highly visible and overwhelming on an everyday basis, the worst long-term toxic buildup may be lurking quietly underfoot in the soil. Nowhere is the global push to restore degraded land likely to be more important, complex and expensive than in China, where vast swaths of the soil are contaminated by arsenic and heavy metals from mines and factories.

There are dire consequences for food production and human health. On top of having the highest cancer rate in the world China has the highest rate of birth defects. No one disputes that this is the result of pollution. It could be argued that the country is fast on the way to killing itself as it grows.

Literally at the root of this epidemic of poisoning is tainted soil that sends toxins and carcinogens to the dinner table, where people unknowingly eat them. Where does this lead? Will parents tell their children not to eat vegetables? It seems that perhaps they should.

Zhou Jianmin, director of the China Soil Association, estimated that one-tenth of China’s farmland was affected. “The country, the government and the public should realize how serious the soil pollution is,” he said. “More areas are being affected, the degree of contamination is intensifying and the range of toxins is increasing.”

Other estimates of soil pollution range as high as 40%, but an official risk assessment is unlikely to be made public for several years.

Mining is largely to blame, though lead and heavy metals from factories and overuse of pesticides and fertilizers by farmers are also a factor.

http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/sh ... pollution-


An estimated 12 million tonnes of grain are contaminated by heavy metals every year, causing direct losses of 20 billion yuan (US$2.57 billion). Harmful substances accumulate in crops and, via the food chain, find their way into our bodies, where they can cause a variety of illnesses. Soil pollution also damages ecosystems and ultimately threatens their safety.

Measures to prevent soil pollution are weak in China. Currently, given the amount of land in question, the degree of the pollution in specific locations is unclear, making both prevention and remedy difficult. There are no laws or environmental standards regarding soil. Funding is limited, too, so there is little advanced scientific study of China’s soil taking place. The severity of the pollution is not understood by either the public or business, and the situation is worsening.

http://www.ibtimes.com/pollution-china- ... tos-709395

The main reason behind the rising number of cancer cases is that pollution of the environment, water and air is getting worse day by day, said Chen Zhizhou, a health expert with the cancer research institute affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, told China Daily.

Many chemical and industrial enterprises are built along rivers so that they can dump the waste into water easily, Chen said. Excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides also pollute underground water.

The contaminated water has directly affected soil, crops and food, he added.



Fortunately this worker in the heaven of the proletariat revolution is unlikely to know anything about polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

http://www.brac.net/content/leadership- ... PXqleTAfD8

The Head of BRAC in a interview recently in NPR said PRC CHINA is funny country.
It does not give much aid to poor nation and it classifies people in China with income with 82 cents or below as poor people. Its official poverty number is around 10% but this is not accurate. According to BRAC the real poverty number in 15-20% of the PRC population

China's state media finally admits to air pollution crisis

If you have been following China’s state-controlled news media you could be forgiven for thinking that clear blue skies -- not oppressive and choking smog -- have been the rule this winter.

But, finally, they seem to have noticed there is a problem.

Days after huge smog clouds settled on some of China’s most important cities, The People's Daily ran two articles on the pollution crisis Monday.

And while one headline declared that “Beautiful China begins to breathe healthily,” the article itself detailed the extent of the problems.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co ... _capacity)

The CHINESE eco-population density is at 800+ per area.
Notice INDIA in comparision is a bit better at 753 and US at 170.
There are some rich countries with 1000+. So cannot draw any conclusion between weath and pop density. But a high value should put strain on natural resources

Nice table brazil seems to be in v good shape. China is 943 from the latest table and is about 750

NASA images show extent of China’s choking pollution

When image was captured on Monday, the air quality index (AQI) in Beijing was 341, NASA reported. An AQI above 300 is considered hazardous to all humans, not just those with heart or lung ailments. AQI below 50 is considered good, said NASA scientists.

In wealthy Hong Kong, the poorest live in metal cages

Cages?

A la aAl Q detained in cargo containers in Afghanistan?

Yet more confirmation of the effects of reckless industrialization without thoughts of environmental impact

• BBC on Cancer Villages
  Strait Times, Singapore
  VoA

Till now though French, American, British, Aussie and Singapore media have carried the article, nothing on Russian media (Novosti) or al Jazeera. Just trying to map how bad news on a country is spread in the current scenario.

An interesting infographic comes from a Chinese discussion board.

And probably the first mention is from a [url-http://english.caijing.com.cn/2013-02-21/112520130.html]Chinese [/url]news source two days ago.

P.S. Noob questions to the guru's. Is there a way to track how news gets disseminated. Doing a Google search and noting timestamps, but it's a very awkward way. How can I do this better?

http://www.theatlantic.com/internationa ... le/272617/

I work in international adoption. One of the biggest changes in the last ten years is the precipitous drop in the number of infants with no identified medical needs available for adoption from China. This is a hugely contentious topic within the adoption community, and I'll spare you most of it.

However, along with the disappearance of children with no identified medical needs, we have seen a huge increase in the number of children with identified medical needs. Every month, I place children (from 9 months to 14 years) who have cleft lip and/or cleft palate; missing fingers, hands, toes, parts of arms or legs; malformed internal organs; genetic disorders; etc.

While any country with a population as large as China's will have some number of children born with birth defects, there are persistent rumors that the horrendous pollution in China has led to a huge increase such births in China. This, combined with the one-child policy, has led to orphanages being filled with special needs children, some of whom have very complex and difficult medical needs. In addition, children remaining in families often have less obvious medical issues that affect their ability to live full lives.

China officials caught spray-painting grass green in Chengdu =

excerpts

The grass actually is greener in the south-western Chinese city of Chengdu, but only because it has been dyed.
Chinese reporters filmed workers from Chengdu's municipal landscaping department as they busily painted the grassy verges of the city's roads with a fluorescent green spray.

"Two workers were spraying the grass, turning the yellow grass into green. Were they painting the grass?" said He Tao, a Chengdu resident, to the China Daily newspaper. "Wouldn't that pollute the environment?"

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... engdu.html

Theo_Fidel wrote:http://www.theatlantic.com/internationa ... le/272617/

I work in international adoption. One of the biggest changes in the last ten years is the precipitous drop in the number of infants with no identified medical needs available for adoption from China. This is a hugely contentious topic within the adoption community, and I'll spare you most of it.

However, along with the disappearance of children with no identified medical needs, we have seen a huge increase in the number of children with identified medical needs. Every month, I place children (from 9 months to 14 years) who have cleft lip and/or cleft palate; missing fingers, hands, toes, parts of arms or legs; malformed internal organs; genetic disorders; etc.

While any country with a population as large as China's will have some number of children born with birth defects, there are persistent rumors that the horrendous pollution in China has led to a huge increase such births in China. This, combined with the one-child policy, has led to orphanages being filled with special needs children, some of whom have very complex and difficult medical needs. In addition, children remaining in families often have less obvious medical issues that affect their ability to live full lives.

They are spreading spies. SALT

http://in.screen.yahoo.com/china-sinkho ... 33819.html

Sink hole opening up in CHINA and swalloing a security guard. Points to looseing of soil due to un-controlled construction

‘China’s Kate Middleton’ trips over Beijing’s tank tracks

China’s government has run into a public relations problem with its effort to put forth a new and modern image by playing up the cultivated, sophisticated image of its new “first lady,” Peng Liyuan

Beijing’s eagerness to spruce up its image is understandable, but implementation might need some work. Other photos of Peng Liyuan are now turning up, showing her in an army uniform serenading the troops after they’d crushed pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Chinese censors are hot on the trail of the embarrassing images, but it’s too late: they’re out there in cyberspace now, reminding everyone that Beijing’s tolerance only runs so deep before the tanks are called out

A few tidbits from last few weeks

1. Suicide rate is double that of India

2. Saw a news on how angry citizens in earth quake hit province venting their wrath as nobody is taking care of them

3. No CHINESE leader in top 5 admired by world CEOs. Gandhi in top 3.

Riot in muslim dominated XINXIANG provice killing 20+

South Korea has intensified a crackdown on the smuggling of capsules from China containing the powdered flesh of dead babies, taken by some as a cure for disease or a way to boost sexual performance, a customs official said Tuesday.

Traditional Chinese voodo medicinal science and its obsession with sexual performance of males deserves a separate thread by itself.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/china ... s/1107508/

More details on the muslim riots in CHINA

Why the Grass is Greener in China

China's Kate Middleton serenading with Tank crews post Tianenman in Uniform

Another Ghost City

harbans wrote: Another Ghost City

THis city Kunming is the closest to Indian borders and Indians should become familiar with this city.

Chengong

http://news.yahoo.com/china-reports-bir ... 27332.html

The bird flus always start in the land of infrastructure and higene. All travelers from CHINA should be banned to enter India....

China career boost can come with health risks- Bloomberg Business Week

Hahn said the effects of expats refusing to relocate to China aren't going to be felt overnight, but eventually "either companies will have to pay a higher price overall because maybe candidates may have to commute as an example, or they may lower their standards or they may offer the position to somebody who may actually not be quite as qualified."

If the current trend hardens, it would have some economic impact, said Alistair Thornton, senior China economist at IHS in Beijing.

"Expats contribute almost nothing to China's growth because the numbers are just tiny, but intangibly they contribute quite a significant amount" by introducing foreign technology, best practices and Western management techniques "that Chinese companies are harnessing and using to drive growth," said Thornton.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/new ... 879777.cms

China does not have a talent pool?

Rat meat sold as lamb in Shanghai, police say

If you have ordered lamb or mutton for hotpot in Shanghai over the last four years, you might have been served rat, fox or mink, the Ministry of Public Security said on Thursday.

"Since 2009, the suspect, surnamed Wei, has bought foxes, minks, rats and other uninspected meat products in Shandong," the ministry said in a press release on its website.

"After adding gelatine, carmine, nitrate and other substances, he sold the meat as fake lamb rolls [for hot pot] at farmers' markets in Jiangsu and Shanghai."

Wei's organisation was raided in Jiangsu and Shanghai in February, which led to the arrest of 63 suspects and the seizure of 10 tons of meat and additives.

Police estimates that Wei's sales over the last four years have reached a value of 10 million yuan (HK$12.6 million).

In March, police in Baotou, a city in the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region, stopped a company that since 2010 has been producing beef jerky from duck meat and selling it in 15 Chinese provinces. Almost 15 tons of the fake jerky were confiscated.

These are two of 10 stomachs-wrenching cases the ministry listed as exemplary of a crackdown on food product fraud - meat of diseased animals, steroid-manipulated meat and sewer oil - that started two weeks before Chinese New Year, on January 25.

Over the last three months, authorities throughout China have seized some 20,000 tons in counterfeit meat and arrested 3,576 suspects in the operation, dealing "a heavy blow to the arrogance of criminals", the ministry said.

The campaign comes amid a growing shortage in agricultural products and a general sense of anxiety over food security.

The task of providing an adequate supply of safe food would be "very tough", Agriculture Minister Han Changfu said at a meeting in December.

In 2010, some 300,000 children got sick after consuming melamine-tainted milk products. Studies last year showed excessive amounts of heavy metals in rice from several regions. In 2005, a fake chicken egg producer's website boasted producing 1,500 eggs a day out of paraffin wax and algae.

Chinese girl cruelly abuses and kills a baby rabbit, posts the video on internet

Recently a video of this young girl senselessly killing a little rabbit had appeared on the Internet (Video and pictures are from a Chinese website Weibo.com). In the video, a young girl with long hair dressed in white abused and killed the little rabbit. She put a piece of thick glass plate on top of the the little rabbit and then sat on top of the glass plate. Using her body weight she crashed the little rabbit to death. Her 2 female friends watched and laughed

Dont know if PETA knows anything about this but I think we should do something to stop these cruel, heartless people killing innocent animals

It's such a heart breaking seeing human treat animals in this way as well as seeing other animal abuse videos on youtube channel

http://news.in.msn.com/gallery/chinese- ... ns-in-pics

I cannot see any correlation of the quality of life seen in these pictures, to being no. 1 manufacturing nation and the no. 1 forex holding nation. Where has the wealth, acquired from manufacturing gone.....

subhamoy.das wrote:http://news.in.msn.com/gallery/chinese- ... ns-in-pics

I cannot see any correlation of the quality of life seen in these pictures, to being no. 1 manufacturing nation and the no. 1 forex holding nation. Where has the wealth, acquired from manufacturing gone.....

A) I don't really see anything wrong with the quality of life reflected in those pictures.

I have a hard time understanding why you'd be looking to understand China's quality of life by looking in a gallery of peasant/farmer inventors.

Here's an idea, buy a plane ticket and visit China. End of story.

Quality of life of a nation is reflected in that of the common folks of that country so i keep looking at random pictures of the common folks of China. So far I see similar to India only. If I would look at the no. 2 manfacturer of the world, i would see a much much better quality of life in the common photos like above. ....

subhamoy.das wrote:Quality of life of a nation is reflected in that of the common folks of that country so i keep looking at random pictures of the common folks of China. So far I see similar to India only. If I would look at the no. 2 manfacturer of the world, i would see a much much better quality of life in the common photos like above. ....

You aren't kidding when you say "random pictures" of the common folks of China. Your random number generator is rather broken, unfortunately.

I'd suggest, again... buy a plane ticket, visit, and see for yourself.

^^ Maybe there is a reason why lot of Chineese are buying up properties in US. Why would they want to settle in US?

This is the online age - everything from meeting to eating - has moved online. So i would rather not do a face 2 face meeting with China when i can meet her online. I suggest that u send us pictures of middle class and poor folks of CHINA going about their daily life and we can take it from there. Show us pictures of Tie II cities( not sanghai ), sub-urbs, villages etc.

40 people died in 2 mine accidents today in China. These acceidents happen routienly in China only. Again a symptom of "great leap forward" with total disregard for human rights...?

http://www.tealeafnation.com/2013/05/vi ... -problems/

Several days ago, the state-run People’s Daily ran a piece entitled “The Post-80′s Generation is Dispirited: Early Decline Cause for Alarm,” arguing that while China’s youth born after 1980 have far and away better material conditions than their forbearers, they face “spiritual confusion and a loss of identity.” The piece concludes by noting that a country’s youth are its future, and that it is the duty of the younger generation to address this problem. In response, social media celebrity and social critic Zuoyeben (@作业本) penned an essay on the real cause of this issue. The essay quickly became the top trending post on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter, drawing more than 100,000 retweets and 29,000 comments in just a few hours. Tea Leaf Nation has translated the essay below in full.
In response to the People’s Daily: Why Is the Post-80’s Generation Dispirited?Several days ago, the People’s Daily ran a story about how the post-80’s generation was dispirited, and how their premature decline in spirit was a source of concern. In this article, I will discuss this issue, using myself as an example.When I was in elementary school, I was moved to tears by [such Communist heroes as] Qiu Shaoyun, Lai Ning and Lei Feng. At all times, I was prepared to sacrifice myself and become a martyr for the establishment of the motherland, spilling every last drop of blood. I thought my red neckerchief [symbol of the Young Pioneers, a Communist organization for children] was more important than my own life, because you told me: it was dyed red with the blood of martyrs. Back then, I wondered, how did martyrs keep their blood so fresh and red before they died?

In the history books, you outlined the crimes of the Japanese, and made me want nothing more than to swim over to Japan and blow it up. You talked of how countless martyrs, Party members, and soldiers sacrificed themselves to win the War of Resistance against Japan. Back then, I was so deeply moved, I was angry I hadn’t been born several decades earlier, so that I could ride boldly into battle with just my knife and my horse. It’s a good thing I wasn’t born back then, after all, or who knows where I would have died.In your anti-Japan dramas, seven or eight-year old kids could kill a lot of [Japanese] devils, and guerrilla units could charge at them with machetes to kill soldiers holding machine guns. Each died after being stabbed once – and sometimes you could kill two with one thrust. Were these devils stupid? You could kill more devils with a machete than a machine gun.Those idiots beat students just as often as they ate. In my third year of high school, the PE teacher beat me within an inch of my life because my morning exercises were not up to par. My homeroom teacher slapped me across the face because I fell asleep in class. My art teacher knocked down my painting and easel because I cut class. The principal kicked me to the ground and wouldn’t allow me to stand up because I was late to school. What I’m trying to say is, back then, almost all teachers beat students, as long as they had some kind of physical advantage.Of course, these days you’ve made some progress. You don’t beat secondary school students, you just get a hotel room with primary school students. [Editors: the reference is to the recent news that a primary school principal took six girls to a hotel room. Sexual attack is suspected.]You approach education as if you had to force-feed us, always making us “recite the whole text,” learn from [Maoist model student] Jiao Yulu and to be wary of Western brainwashing. What use is it to recite the whole text? What are we supposed to get out of studying your examples and models? Do we deceive ourselves? Is there any meaning in “political thought education” for middle school students? Where is the value in making college students study Marxism, Leninism, Maoist Thought and Deng Xiaoping’s theories?How many of your professors do real academic research? Or have done real academic research? The world has already developed to this point, but you still require students to attend classes, or fail.After I graduated, I entered the job market, and nearly drowned in a sea of other job-hunters. If your employment assistance office just for show? After I found a job, I saw most companies didn’t pay requisite insurances. During the period in which I was unemployed, you forced me to sign a fake employment agreement, then you shamelessly declared to the outside that your employment rate was over 98%….After entering society, your regulations beat people about the head until they bled. You collected so much in taxes that companies figured out ways to steal and evade them. What about the employees, then? There wasn’t a single law that could fully ensure that citizen’s rights in the workplace were not infringed upon.
Why must we continually pay taxes for five years before we are allowed to buy a house? Why must someone who makes 3,000 RMB a month in this city, where property costs more than 10,000 RMB per square meter on average, pay individual income tax?When going to your various departments to fill out paperwork, you hold up endless hoops for us to jump through. When I went to obtain a certificate of unemployment, I had to go back and forth more than ten times between three different offices, traveling over 200 kilometers in total.When I went to obtain my driver’s licenses, the instructor gave me all kinds of hints that I should give him a bribe. When it was time for me to be tested in reverse maneuvering, he told me three minutes into my allotted ten minutes that time was up.When I went to get a replacement ID card, it took you over a month to deliver it to me. When I go to the bank, the unresponsive tellers act as if I’m stealing their money.There are all kinds of ridiculous overcharges for my cellphone.
When I surf the net or mess around on Weibo, you freely delete my posts, which in and of itself isn’t a big deal, but you also invite people to “drink tea,” monitor them, or send them to re-education through labor camps for nothing more than a tweet.If I want to buy a house, I can’t afford to eat or drink for thirty years.
When I buy stuff, fake goods, low-quality goods, toxic goods and unsafe items are everywhere.If I want to buy a foreign-made car, I have to pay two times its original price.“Primary school food meets sanitation standards, lamb meat is lamb meat, the rivers are clean, and there aren’t 10,000 pigs in the river. The air we breathe isn’t poisonous; you don’t have to wear a face mask.”Now that I’ve grown up, you even dare to put poison in infant milk powder. The stench of the rivers is awful; the air is filled with the smell of the End Days. Housing prices are rising faster than anything, agents are evil, landlords are cunning, and renting an apartment has become like a battle.I don’t care that your organizations are bloated beyond recognition, but why must I obtain a ‘temporary residence permit’ in my own country?So you tell me. I belong to the post-80’s generation. How is it possible for me not to be dispirited? It’s enough of a f**king accomplishment that I’m somehow still alive!