China Breaking Down: Millions Sleeping on Streets! Guangzhou’s Economy in Freefall

Did the food help at all? Still feeling dizzy? Want me to take you to the hospital? Here, have a cookie. It's sweet, it might give you a bit of energy. Go grab two bottles of regular coke. If you're still unwell in 15 minutes, don't hesitate. Tell me and we'll get you to a hospital. Could be heat stroke or just sheer exhaustion. A one-armed man walked over 30 kilometers with no money in his pocket. He collapsed by the roadside from hunger. Bystanders stopped, gave him food. Others handed him cash. He cried, overwhelmed by kindness. Another man had been turned down by factory after factory. Jobless and starving, he fainted on the street. In Dongguan, a 19-year-old food delivery worker collapsed while cycling. Sitting on the curb, he broke into tears. When was your last proper meal? Someone asked. Are you under too much pressure? Please, don't call the ambulance. He begged. If they come and I don't meet the criteria, they'll just leave. But I can't afford the cost if they do take me. I'll pay if it comes to that, someone replied. You look lost, anxious. It's the stress. It hits harder when you're alone and broke. But I've been there too. I'm unemployed, like so many others. China's economy is in crisis, and it's pushing millions to the edge. Young people, once chasing big city dreams, are now stuck in a nightmare of joblessness and survival. Online, the evidence is everywhere. Videos of fainting workers, hungry youths, collapsed couriers. Some never make it to help in time. A leaked internal CCP report claims the number of homeless people in China has exploded from nearly invisible to 24.1 million in just a few years. Most of them? Young. In one video, a man sat outside a shop in Zhangzhou, Fujian, for hours, during a typhoon on July 21. The shop owner noticed him, frail and quiet. She asked him where he came from. Guangzhou, he replied. I came to find work. It's been four days. I've run out of money. She gave him an umbrella and 100 yuan. He packed up and left. Later, she checked her security footage. He'd been sitting there the entire day, not asking for anything. Just waiting. Hopelessly. I saw his face on the camera, she said. That expression at the shop entrance, eh, it shattered me. One hot July day, a woman delivering food on a bicycle collapsed beside the road. Her young daughter at her side. A passerby tried to help. Should I call emergency? Number don't. I'll be okay. Just give me a minute. Her arm was bandaged. Her other hand trembled. A man handed her some water. She couldn't lift it. Could you feed my daughter? She whispered. She took a few sips, stood up shakily and said, my order's almost overdue. The man grabbed her phone and explained to the customer. She had heat stroke. She collapsed. The customer responded, she doesn't need to finish the delivery. No compensation needed. Just let her rest. The man also learned her husband was a delivery driver too. Want to call him? He asked. Number he's working. If he comes here now, he'll lose part of his pay. In the comment section, people poured out their emotions. Delivering food with a child in the heat, just to survive. Life is too hard. Another wrote, I cried watching this. I thought I was struggling, raising a family on my own. But now I see others have it even worse. A man lay unconscious in the scorching sun until a taxi driver from Guangzhou pulled over and rushed to help. His name was Xiao Li. He had come to the city chasing a job carrying only 800 Yuan, but he lost it all and hadn't eaten for days. The driver bought him food and water with his own money, then gave him a free ride across the city. Xiao Li, how much do I owe you? Driver, don't worry about it. Here, take this instead. Xiao Li, I'm an orphan from Wenchuan. My parents died in 2008. Driver, you survived the earthquake. That means you're meant to keep going. The future will be kinder to you. Here's 100 Yuan. Get yourself something to eat. Xiao Li, I'm sorry to ask. Driver, you don't need to be. Eat first. You can repay me when you're doing better. On November 4, 2023, at a farmer's market in Sanya, a man collapsed from hunger. Stall owners rushed to help. He hadn't eaten in two days, someone said. One woman pressed acupuncture points until he regained consciousness. Another ran to buy him porridge, tofu and bread. His hands were shaking. I had to hold the bowl for him, the woman said. That's how weak he was. In Kunshan, Jiangsu, once a booming manufacturing hub, factories have shut down. Jobs have vanished. The dream is gone. Zhonghuayuan, once a worker's neighborhood, is now filled with young jobless drifters sleeping on sidewalks, under bridges, anywhere. August 13, 2024. A young man died of hunger in the streets of Zhonghuayuan. The scene was chilling. His body hunched over, shirtless, hugging his knees. His legs were blackened and swollen. Next to him stood a silent medic with a notebook. Another squatted nearby, closing the first aid kit. A blue sheet covered a stretcher just a few steps away. No luggage, no ID, just a white plastic bag. The wound won't heal, someone whispered. Online, debates erupted. Did he die? How could someone starve to death in today's China? Netizens abroad asked a haunting question. Is this really happening in a country that claims it's feeding the world? Many pointed fingers at the CCP for letting this happen. Across China, more and more people are facing the same fate. Factories are shutting down. Offices are downsizing. Layoffs are hitting fast and without warning. Man, why did they fire you? Woman, it was sudden. Just last month, we hired two new people. Then out of nowhere, the boss asked to see me. He said the company was struggling, cutting costs. I was on the layoff list, just like that. I had moved closer to the office yesterday. Today I lost my job. I feel like I'm vanishing. I never thought I'd be unemployed at 30. That was how blogger Ningning opened up about her life after a sudden layoff. She graduated in 2016 and had been working hard ever since, a full decade of nonstop grind. But this year, at just 30, everything came crashing down. When she broke the news, her husband gently told her, don't overthink it. Just rest for a while. It was supposed to be a brief pause, but reality hit hard. In an effort to be closer to their office, the couple had upgraded to an apartment with 2,000 yuan higher rent. Both worked for internet companies, imagining they'd climb steadily upward. But six months ago, her husband lost his job. Then a few months later, she was let go too. The weight of double unemployment, soaring living costs, and an unstable job market left Ningning feeling defeated. There's no such thing as job security anymore, she said. This is what it means to be young in today's China. Uncertain, anxious, and disposable. Meanwhile, in Shanghai, another voice echoed this despair. Blogger Lao Yan shared that he's been unemployed for over a year. With no income, he can't even pay his building's property fees. I've done startups for 24 years, he said. I've tried everything. I've burned out chasing dreams that never paid off. And now, even my health is collapsing. At 38, he wonders how it got this bad. I don't smoke. I don't drink. I just stay up a bit late. So why am I suffering from problems that people in their 50s deal with? After he posted his story, hundreds of people flooded his inbox. Strangers, mostly in their 20s and 30s, all saying the same thing. I'm falling apart, too. Hair loss. High blood pressure. Insomnia. Chest pains. Young people are breaking down. Silently. He went to the hospital recently and made a sobering observation. You'll see more elderly in the waiting rooms, but it's the young who look worse off. Behind China's glittering cities and high-rises lies a burnt-out generation. Not lazy, not weak, just exhausted from trying too hard for too long in a system that no longer cares. The worst-off people now are not those who have not received education, but those who cannot find a job after graduating from college. I found a problem at a class reunion today. There are six people in a dormitory, four of whom cannot find a job. Later, I found out that the other two are deliverymen. I worked hard to get into college and studied for four years. Isn't the purpose of going to college to find a good job? As a result, after four years of college, I can't find a job at all. To be honest, I actually regret going to college a little bit. If I hadn't gone to college, I would earn 3,500 yuan a month as a waiter with food and accommodation. But what happened to me after four years of college? I can't even find a job that pays 4,000 yuan. In recent years, China's economy has been sluggish and unemployed people are everywhere. However, there are a large number of college graduates in the mainland every year. And the problem of unemployment after graduation is difficult to alleviate. Even in Shenzhen, it is difficult to find a job. Some college graduates have finally found a job. But after deducting necessary expenses, the remaining money is simply not enough to maintain a minimum living. Today, we will talk about related topics. Recently, a female law graduate in China cried that her monthly salary was 2,500 yuan and 1,800 yuan would be deducted for social security, leaving only 700 yuan, which is equivalent to a daily salary of only a little more than 30 yuan. She explained, why do you have to pay social security? Because you must have a record of paying social security to get a trainee lawyer certificate. If you don't pay social security, you can't become a trainee lawyer and you can't become a professional lawyer. My boss told me that my social security is deducted from my salary. The original salary of 2,500 yuan after deducting 1,800 yuan for social security leaves only 700 yuan. I work 22 days a month, which means that my daily salary is only a little more than 30 yuan. Why do I have to pay for insurance? Because if you want to get a trainee lawyer certificate, you must have a record of paying social security. If you don't pay social security, you can't become a trainee lawyer. If you can't become a trainee lawyer, you can't become a professional lawyer. I spend 6 yuan to take the subway every day to go to work and it costs 12 yuan to go back and forth. I have to eat and I pay to go to work every day. The woman said that law students must have experience to be a company's legal affairs. And the competition for civil service examinations is also very fierce. Only graduate students can become judges and prosecutors. She cried and said, Law students nowadays are so pitiful. I still rely on the money I earned as a tutor and the money my grandparents gave me. Otherwise, how can I survive? I'd rather not survive. I don't have a penny and I have to work every day to pay for it. This video resonated with mainland netizens. Some said, We have all experienced what you have experienced. Just hold on. It will be fine if you hold on. Don't cry, kid. You will get used to it slowly. Everyone is a cow or a horse. There is a joke on the Internet that it is not easy for a boss to recruit a driver with a monthly salary of 2000 to 3000 yuan. But if you want to recruit a trainee lawyer with a monthly salary of 2000 to 3000 yuan and let him work for you, write materials and be your driver, then you will definitely have a lot of applicants.