The Coronavirus Pandemic Has Shaken China's Young To Push For Change

Young people in China campaigning for freedom of speech and accusing the government of hiding the truth COVID-19. VOA

DNYUZ: Coronavirus Crisis Awakens a Sleeping Giant: China’s Youth

Students have flooded social media to organize donations for Chinese doctors battling the coronavirus epidemic. Workers have marched in the streets to demand compensation for weeks of unemployment during citywide lockdowns. Young citizen journalists have taken to YouTube to call for free speech.

The coronavirus outbreak has mobilized young people in China, sounding a call to action for a generation that had shown little resistance to the ruling Communist Party’s agenda.

For much of their lives, many young Chinese have been content to relinquish political freedoms as long as the party upheld its end of an unspoken authoritarian bargain by providing jobs, stability and upward mobility. Now, the virus has exposed the limits of that trade-off.

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WNU Editor: I was in China in the 1980s, and I saw the growing movement among the young against the Communist Party and their rule. It was primarily among university students and teachers, and what struck me was that they did not care about their personal safety. They just wanted something better in their life. I also believed at the time that they would never succeed. The Chinese Communist establishment had the means to crush all dissent, the only question that everyone like myself wondered at the time was .... when were they going to use it. That questioned was answered on June 4, 1989.

I am now seeing the set groundswell of opposition to the Communist Party and their rule among the young. But unlike the 1980s where the protest movement resided mainly among University students and intellectuals, this one is different, the current opposition is massive and it is coming from everyone under 35. I can understand this sentiment. The social contract where Beijing and the Communist Party would provide safety, stability, and a better life to the citizens of China has been broken. What has made it worse are the lies and disinformation coming from central government, and no willingness among the top leadership to acknowledge this disaster. This has left a foul taste in everyone's mouth, and it is not going to go away anytime soon. My prediction. If the economy does not improve in the coming months, and if there is a second pandemic wave later this year as bad as the one in January/February, the Chinese government under President Xi is going to face enormous opposition, starting from the provinces directly impacted by this virus, to the coastal provinces of China that are also its industrial heartland. This is the nightmare scenario, and it will have global consequences if it gets out of hand. If you think the protests in Hong Kong in 2019 were bad, you have seen nothing yet.

Update: Another must read on how China's young are reacting to this .... 'I Have the Obligation to Speak for the Dead' (VOA).