There is a growing problem in Chinese universities, with many of the educational institutions seemingly nudging graduates to falsify information in order to skew employment figures.
Against the backdrop of a struggling economy for the Middle Kingdom, the Ministry of Education has dispatched inspection teams to several high-ranking universities to crack down on graduates fabricating employment records or falsely claiming to be employed.
Both the Education Ministry and other provincial authorities are collecting reports of falsification with the aim of prosecutions in those involved. This scandal couldn’t have come at a worse time, as employment rates for Chinese youth are probably at the lowest level since the 1970’s. Henry Gao, a law professor at Singapore’s Management University states, “I think the actual state of youth unemployment in China could be worse than the data suggests, as colleges have incentives to inflate the employment rate. There have been reports of colleges offering jobs to their own graduates just to paper over the data.”
In China, college employment rate is closely tied to funds, grants, and new student admissions. This symbiotic link provides ample scope for fudging of data and subsequent skewing of figures, as appears to be happening currently.
It’s not surprising that such a scenario is developing, with unemployment rates in China for 16-24 year old standing currently at 21.3%, a figure sure to be exacerbated when approximately 15.8 additional young people graduate from university this year.
Unfortunately, there is no quick fix for this situation as China’s economy continues to slow down and sputter, with the much-important private economy – which accounts for 80% of Chinese GDP – unable to muster increased investor confidence or momentum. One of the few good-news stories in the Chinese economic field is the booming ‘green jobs’ industry, but it is not nearly large enough to provide a significant uptick for short-term economic forecasts.
Clearly, the boom days of the Middle Kingdom’s economic reforms are over, and with them, the CCP’s long-held dreams of Red China being a global economic powerhouse. With this slowdown, it is sadly becoming apparent that it is the next generation of Chinese citizens that are bearing the brunt of President Xi’s imperial dreams of Chinese economic hegemony, alas…
