Severe Recession Hits Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen – Homeless Flood Silicon Valley of China

China's economy is spiraling downward, and even Beijing can no longer keep up the facade. The political bureau of the CPC Central Committee convened an emergency meeting, and for once, dropped the empty slogans. Instead of boasting about a bright future, they quietly acknowledged that deep cracks have formed in the economy. The wealthy are quietly escaping, while a new wave of emigration is spreading across Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen. Meanwhile, life for ordinary people has descended into hardship and hopelessness. Amid the US-China trade war and the CCP's tightening grip, businesses are collapsing by the thousands, and foreign investors are fleeing. Shenzhen, once hailed as the Silicon Valley of China, has entered its darkest winter. The city is now haunted by mass unemployment. Some are sleeping rough under bridges. One mainland blogger filmed the scene. This is the overpass by East Station in Shenzhen. Do you see them? These are the homeless. Recently, more and more Chinese bloggers are exposing the economic decay of Shenzhen. Videos show people sprawled under bridges, in public squares, and behind office buildings. Not beggars, but software engineers, construction workers, and food delivery riders. By day, they desperately search for work. By night, they sleep in the open air. Many survive on instant noodles and tap water just to stay alive. Li Yuanhua, an Australian-based scholar, commented, Shenzhen was once a beacon of development. Now, its companies are vanishing, and people are sleeping in parks and under bridges. This is the true face of China's economic collapse. The ordinary people? They have no jobs left. Post-COVID, China's economy has crumbled. With foreign capital in full retreat, Shenzhen's manufacturing and service sectors have taken a brutal hit. Today, the city is in freefall. Waves of jobless workers roam the streets, and even highly skilled professionals are among them. One female blogger described a haunting scene. I stood on the overpass near Sanhei Talent Market in Longgang District. Below me, the ground was covered with migrant workers. They can't even afford a 15-yuan bed for the night. They sleep on the steps. This is Shenzhen. Video after video paints the same bleak picture. Over the past two or three years, Shenzhen's streets have become a refuge for the unemployed. Ai Shicheng, former founder and editor-in-chief of Shenzhen NPO, explains, Since the pandemic, foreign investors and private businesses have pulled out, many heading to India and Vietnam. With the giants gone, the entire industrial chain has collapsed. Countless people lost their livelihoods, with no safety net they've ended up on the streets. Driven mad by poverty, the CCP is targeting the little people, and local governments are pulling out all the dirty tricks. As China's economy keeps sinking, and local governments face severe cash shortages, a disturbing trend is taking hold across the country. Fines as revenue. From traffic police to urban inspectors, from market regulators to sanitation squads, they're all stepping up enforcement, raising fines and harassing citizens. The public is outraged. Interviewees reveal that highway tolls have quietly doubled, and random fines are everywhere. The common saying now is, whenever the government runs out of money, it prints tickets. Not cash, but fines. Kui Guanwu, a resident of Shenzhen, said on June 24th that local finances are crumbling, and now law enforcement is openly tasked with squeezing money out of the people. There's no money coming from land sales anymore, so they're sending traffic police and city inspectors to hunt for fines. It's relentless. I just saw a young man fined 2,000 yuan for not wearing a helmet while riding an e-bike. And if you carry goods or passengers? Boom. Another 2,000 yuan. For many families, that's half a month's income. The poorer you are, the harder they hit. Urban law enforcement is becoming just as ruthless. Su Qiang from Suzhou said that despite national guidelines to go easy on street vendors, the crackdown continues. Now they fine 20 yuan a time. Not much, but vendors treat it like paying protection fees. In some cities, the fines are 800 or 2,200 yuan. How much can you even earn selling street food? He added bitterly, This isn't management. It's exploitation. When they can't collect taxes, they come after the weakest. And it's not rare. According to Legal Daily, a farmer in Jiangsu was fined 100,000 yuan for making just 180 yuan profit selling sheep. Only after public outrage did authorities reduce the fine to 10,000 yuan. But the damage was done. It's not just vendors. Small and medium enterprises are also drowning under a tidal wave of inspections and fines. A company in Shandong was hit with hundreds of inspections between 2021 and 2023, crippling its ability to operate. The numbers expose the trend. In 2024, China's non-tax revenue hit a staggering 4.47 trillion yuan, up 25.4% from the year before. These revenues include countless administrative fees and fines, a lifeline for broke local governments. Under pressure from backlash, the State Council issued a guideline in January 2024 limiting inspections to once every three months and demanding standardization. The Ministry of Justice even launched a national campaign to root out abusive practices. Random fines, random checks, random seizures. But on the ground? It's business as usual. Central policies, local tricks. People say it everywhere. Ordinary citizens are just as trapped as the businesses. Toll hikes, cross-province fines, forced purchases. Anything to raise money. Mr. Zheng, a Shanghai resident traveling in Guizhou, said the toll has doubled from 0.5 yuan to 1 yuan per kilometer. Even discounts for senior citizens at tourist sites are quietly raised from age 60 to 65. Everything is going up. Highways, tickets. They're bleeding us dry. Zhang Xiaonong from Changsha shared that his friend's garment factory was forced by the fire department to buy expensive escape ladders, or face fines. Then, in a bizarre twist, police from another province fined the company 500,000 yuan over alleged infringement. They called it cross-province law enforcement. Hubei police fined a company in Changsha? It's madness. Ms. Wang, a retired teacher from Langfang, Hebei, added, A gas bottle used to be 70 yuan. Now the government forces us to switch to designated bottles that cost 140. If you don't change it, you don't get gas. Isn't that just forced consumption? An investigation by the paper reveals even more shocking data. In some provinces, non-tax revenues have more than doubled this year. Hebei, Hubei, Shanxi all have refused to disclose how much they've collected in fines and seizures. The lack of transparency is fueling even more suspicion. And now even blockbuster films are starting to reflect public fury. The situation is turning critical. China's economy is under siege. China is now grappling with some of its toughest economic challenges in decades. One of the most devastating blows has come from the U.S.-China trade war. Since 2018, sweeping U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods have shattered China's export machine. Overseas market shares are shrinking fast, and countless factories are bleeding orders. Worse still, many manufacturers have packed up and moved to lower-cost hubs like Vietnam and India, leaving China's once-dominant role in the global supply chain in freefall. On another front, the tech war with the United States is suffocating China's high-tech ambitions. With Washington cutting off access to cutting-edge semiconductors and communications tech, China's dream of becoming a tech superpower is hitting a wall. Sectors like 5G, AI, and chip manufacturing are now facing brutal bottlenecks, and homegrown tech companies are struggling to survive under the crushing weight of sanctions. But the pressure isn't just from America. Europe is also sounding the alarm. Although the EU and China remain deeply intertwined economically, Europe is increasingly skeptical of Beijing's closed-door policies on market access and IP protection. Chinese firms' aggressive low-price strategies have rattled small and mid-sized European businesses, sparking a wave of protectionist responses. The EU is tightening scrutiny on Chinese imports, and the message is clear. Resistance is rising. Meanwhile, the exodus of foreign capital has become a ticking time bomb. Global companies are fleeing, moving operations out of China in search of more stable ground. This wave of relocation is hollowing out China's world factory status, draining foreign exchange reserves, and erasing millions of job opportunities. What's fueling this retreat? China's tightening grip on national security. Harsh laws like the counterespionage law and the data security law have sent chills through foreign boardrooms. Though touted as national defense, these regulations are stoking fears that China is closing its doors. The result? A full-blown confidence crisis. Global investors are now asking the uncomfortable question, is China still open for business? Shenzhen meltdown, jobs vanish, shops close, and desperation fills the streets. There are things I honestly don't dare to tell you, because I'm afraid that if I do, you might no longer have the courage to stay in the food and beverage business. Across the entire Pearl River Delta region, there are nearly 1,000 banquet restaurants, and I estimate that in the second half of this year, many will begin the countdown to closure. Hauge says this not to scare anyone. It's not alarmist talk. Because in just the past month alone, the number of large restaurants asking us to come on site for price quotations has reached 700 to 800, equaling the total number of such requests we received during the entire first half of the year. This is a scene recorded on the streets of Shenzhen, Guangdong. People who once came here carrying big dreams, now ending up homeless. Seeing this with your own eyes makes it truly hard to stay calm. This is the number one trading plaza in Huanan City, Shenzhen. Here, at least one person has lost over 1 million yuan, another over 2 million. The entire venue houses thousands of stalls. Several hundred million yuan have essentially gone up in smoke. This place used to be a frenzy. People fought to buy a stall here, even willing to pay extra bribes just to secure one. And now? The entire venue is overgrown with wild weeds. People once said a single stall here could support three generations. And now? Even prime locations sit empty with no takers. Recently, a view has been circulating on Chinese social media. Shenzhen, Guangdong's top-tier city, just like Beijing, is completely unsuitable for ordinary people to live in. The sense of happiness here is extremely low. Shenzhen feels like a city built only for workers, with no room for the idle. It's like a giant flashy prison by the sea, surrounded by a few scenic parks where the inmates can get some fresh air. Just surviving is already a blessing. Many are asking, why does Shenzhen, one of China's most prosperous and developed coastal cities, leave people feeling so hopeless? Today, let's take a closer look at what's really happening in this city. Everyone, this is the pedestrian overpass near East Shenzhen Railway Station. Do you see it? These are homeless people, men and women, all carrying luggage. They've all come here. This is Shenzhen. There are also elderly people who look like artists. I didn't disturb them. There are musicians too, with their clothes hanging to dry on the railing. When you go to Longgang District and stand on the overpass next to Sanhei Talent Market, you'll see workers lying all over the ground. They can't even afford a 15 yuan bed for the night, so they just lie down wherever they can on the steps. As you can see, this is Shenzhen. The current situation in Shenzhen, you'll probably be shocked when you hear it. Not long after the Labor Day holiday, it's said that millions of people have poured into Shenzhen from all over the country. Now, the subway stations in Shenzhen are packed to the brim, and job markets are so crowded with job seekers that they're nearly bursting at the seams. Many mistake this for a sign of prosperity, but what's the reality? Large corporations are laying off employees. Small businesses are shutting down en masse. Rental apartments sit empty, while hotels are filled with unemployed people wandering around in search of work. Back in the day, commercial apartments here were selling for over 600,000 yuan per square meter, on par with the famous Dongmen area in Luohu. But what about now? Today, let's take a look at the cultural plaza inside the Southern Tech Park. At its peak, rent here could reach over 200,000 yuan per month per unit. Surrounding it were the headquarters of major tech companies in the Central Business District. But look at it now. One empty unit, two empty units, an entire row completely vacant. No one is renting. This place has become nothing more than a place for people to take leisurely walks. Honestly, it's only today that I truly understand how hard it is to find a job. Today, I was laid off by the company I worked at for two years. I'm extremely anxious. I haven't slept properly for a whole week. Every night I stay up until two or three in the morning, and I only manage to fall asleep when I'm completely exhausted. I think this kind of anxiety is something not everyone can relate to. For people like us, with limited education, no family background, to get to where we are today took sheer grit and relentless effort. And now, what are we supposed to do? A friend asked me if I'm still looking for a job. Honestly, I just want to pick a good day and disappear. I don't even know anymore. Is it that my fate is just too harsh? Or is finding a job now simply too difficult? I'm really at my breaking point. Yes, I've been laid off. I've lived and worked in Shenzhen for 10 years. My child was just born, not even a month old when I received the layoff notice from my boss. On the day I was let go, HR brushed it off with a single sentence, organizational restructuring. But that one line erased all my effort and dedication from the past 10 years. In the four months I've been unemployed, I've sent out more than 500 resumes, and the number of responses I've received has been minimal, close to nothing. Local residents have noticed six unusual phenomena in Shenzhen this year. Many people didn't return to the city after the Lunar New Year holiday. This is the current reality in Shenzhen. First, once-bustling commercial areas have now become eerily quiet. In the past, it was extremely difficult to rent a storefront. But now, many major brands have pulled out, and the number of vacant shops has surged. Traditional retail business has truly become harder and harder to sustain. Even though rents have decreased, it's still difficult to find tenants. Second, roads are under construction across nearly every district in Shenzhen. Subway expansion projects keep rolling out one after another, making traffic jams during rush hour and everyday occurrence. People are constantly complaining and venting on social media. Third, Shenzhen's once sky-high housing prices have started to decline. New developments are offering discounts and promotions, while listings for second-hand homes have surged. Many buyers and sellers are on the sidelines, waiting, as prices now fluctuate daily. Everyone is extremely cautious. Fourth, office buildings in Shenzhen are also increasingly vacant. Many companies have moved out of large buildings, and a new trend is emerging—shared office spaces, where multiple companies operate out of a small unit to save on costs. Fifth, job opportunities in Shenzhen are shrinking. Finding a position that offers weekends off and full social insurance is extremely difficult. If you can land a job with even one day off per week, that's already considered fortunate. Right now, many fresh graduates can't find work. Numerous companies are still laying off employees and cutting salaries. Everyone is tightening their belts, just to survive. Sixth, on the streets, food delivery drivers are speeding through traffic without paying attention to red lights. Now, even women have joined the delivery workforce. But overall, order volume is dropping, and so are their incomes. Netizens have said that Shenzhen has changed drastically in just a few years, but no one seems to know what exactly caused such a dramatic transformation. Shenzhen, a city with over 18 million people, now has empty streets and shops with no customers. Where has everyone gone? Or is it that we just can't see them? Have you noticed? In the past two years, delivery drivers and ride-hailing drivers are everywhere, even oversaturating the market. More and more physical storefronts are closing down. While the population is growing, pedestrian traffic is actually decreasing. That's because half of the people are at home watching short videos, and the other half are working overtime in office buildings. In today's Shenzhen, just having a job that pays on time is already a stroke of luck. Who still has the mood to go shopping? In the end, I'm the only one left in the store. Yesterday, I had a farewell meal with my staff and told them not to come in today. I couldn't bring myself to say the words goodbye. It took me a long time to finally say it. And just like that, the famous Kim Dung clay pot, mixed beef stew, is saying farewell to everyone. Let me show you the shop one last time, just as a keepsake. This is the first floor, and this is the second floor. The chairs on the second floor have already been cleared out. Overnight, it felt like the sky collapsed. Do you know how far housing prices in Shenzhen have fallen? A 215-square-meter apartment has dropped by nearly 10 million yuan in just three years. Prices have fallen back to levels from eight years ago. Can you believe it? Now, the areas outside Shenzhen's city center are eerily desolate. In Longgang District, there are barely any pedestrians on the streets, and traffic is sparse. This is the Longgang Yiwu commodity market, and it looks bleak and deserted. I've decided to stop. I'm selling all the equipment, shutting down the factory, and cutting ties with manufacturing for good. At first, I thought if I could just make it through 2023, then 2024 and 2025 would be better. But since the beginning of this year, I haven't seen even a sliver of hope. These are the words of a factory owner in Shenzhen. Do you think Guangdong Province is truly wealthy? Word is that the per capita GDP of Meizhou is still under 40,000 yuan, only about half of the national average. Many small localities within the province are still poor, both in terms of personal income and economic development, and they fall far short of the standards of developed cities. Especially over the past two years, as China's economy continues to decline, Guangdong is facing a difficult challenge, a major fracture in its province-wide economic growth chain. Some netizens predict that in the three months, many business owners in Guangdong may not survive this summer. If you're a boss, whether you're running a restaurant, operating a factory, or selling clothing, there's a high chance you'll have to shut down before summer ends. And if you're just a regular worker, then finding a job right now will be incredibly tough. To all my fellow restaurant owners, I'm bowing out first. I'm sorry, I really can't hold on any longer. Today is June 15, 2025. Tomorrow, my restaurant will be handed over to someone else. I'm recording this video as a memento. I also wanted to be like all of you, to keep fighting, to keep holding on, to keep this place going. But the truth is, I no longer have the financial or physical strength to continue. Every day, I was just like you, telling myself, tomorrow will definitely be better. But now I realize, I was wrong. Just how bad is the economy right now? My mother, a full-time rural housewife, with only a primary school education, who's never paid attention to what happens outside the home, said to me today, the economy is really bad now, son. If you don't have to switch jobs, then don't. But mom, you might not know, your son doesn't even have a job to switch anymore, because I am the unemployment now.