On July 23, China announced the new rules that require China’s tutoring companies to become nonprofit entities. They were banned from offering tutoring services during weekends and school breaks, and from making profits, raising capital or going public.
China is tightening curbs over US-listed Chinese companies. Look at what happened to DIDI, the ride-share company that was listed a few days ago, this crackdown on tutoring firms is Deja Vu all over again.
Two years ago, Chinese tech workers protested on GitHub, the worlds’s largest code host, against grueling overtime hours at some companies, aiming at the industry’s “996” work culture, which referred to the 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. workday, six days a week.
Ironically, earlier this month, ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company has announced that it will cancel its overtime policy, effective August 1st. An internal survey about whether to abolish its infamous overtime policy was sent out before the announcement. Surprisingly, about one-third of the surveyed employees opposed that abolishment and complained that they would be subject to the same amount of workload but less pay.
Tang Ping, meaning “giving up and lying flat” became a rage among young Chinese, as a stand against the pressures of modern life. It started with a post saying “lying flat is justice”, by a social media user called Kind-Hearted Traveller. Soon it went viral and became an online movement.
The movement of “Tang Ping” is meant to reject the culture of overwork that forces Chinese youngsters to work for longer hours with little reward. Many are frustrated with the low prospects of their jobs and their inability in the face of rising prices to afford a house ever in their lifetimes.
However, this trend was soon be repressed by censorship, and related merchandise like T shirts with “Tang Ping” designs were deleted from Taobao, the biggest e-commerce platform in China.
China’s sweeping ban on cryptocurrency mining has paralyzed an industry that accounts for over half of global bitcoin production, as miners dump machines in despair.
Shih Wing-ching, Chairman of Centaline Property Agency, recently wrote an article “How to solve the declining birth rate”. He said “I don’t support birth control. To take the basic birth responsibility as a human, I think people should be forbidden to use condoms unless they already have two children .”
Does that mean you may need to show your children’s birth certificates to buy condoms in China?
Shortly after releasing of the population census, China pivots to a 3-child policy to bring a baby boom. However, this won’t make a dent in its declining birth rate because the country’s young couples don’t want kids.
China’s birth rate was 1.3 children per woman, well below the replacement level-2.1— the rate needed to maintain a stable population. The data also showed a sharp rise in the percentage of Chinese aged 60 and above, to 18.7% of the population from 13.3% in 2010.
Experts say the slowdown birth rate is rooted in several trends, including the rise of women in the work force who are educated and don’t see marriage as necessary to achieving financial security, at least for themselves. For Chinese couples, many cannot afford to have children as living costs increase and their jobs demand more time and energy. Basically, it’s a society where nobody wants to get married and people can’t afford to have children.
On July 21, The US ordered China to close its consulate in Houston, Texas. Three days later, China ordered US to close Chengdu Consulate as payback. This tit-for-tat consulate closures were followed on both sides by calls to return to more normal relations.
This pandemic has changed our life completely, and face mask has become a part of our daily life.
Li Wenliang, the Chinese doctor who tried to warn about the coronavirus outbreak on December 30, 2019, but police told him to stop “making false comments”.
He contracted the virus while working at Wuhan Central Hospital, and died today at age 34.
He Jiankui, a scientist in China who said he had created the world’s first gene-edited babies, has been jailed for three years.
He was convicted of violating a government ban by carrying out his own experiments on human embryos, to try to give them protection against HIV.
He was globally condemned when he announced his experiments, and the birth of twin babies, last November.
Xinjiang’s Uyghurs are subject to a comprehensive, targeted campaign of surveillance and control. According to leading researchers and human rights groups, as many as 1.5 million have been placed in camps, which Chinese officials called “Vocational Education and Training Centers”.
On June 9, about one million Hong Kong people marched to the government headquarters to protest the Anti-Extradition Bill, which allows extraditions to mainland China. Since then, the protests has last months, and conflicts between protesters and police escalated.
On August 11th, policed stormed enclosed railway stations, firing tear gas at protesters, leading yet again to dramatic scenes of confrontation.
The next day, protesters gathered at the airport, leading to hundreds of flights being cancelled. A scene went viral, which was a little kid standing in the lobby with this sign. We can’t help thinking, what would be the future of the young kids of Hong Kong if this “One Country, Two Systems” finally become “One County, One System”?
The Truth Of China 