EDITORIAL: China’s information blockadeFacing a seventh consecutive monthly increase in the youth unemployment rate, the Chinese government on Aug. 15 announced that it would suspend publication of the figures. Chinese academics even estimated that the actual unemployment rate was 46 percent, because young people in rural townships had not been surveyed. Since 2017, China has also stopped sharing its fertility rate data. By covering up unpleasant statistics, Beijing intends to blind its disillusioned citizens and pacify discontented young Chinese, especially as such information could be considered a threat to its rule. The Chinese government has even removed several prominent writers’ social media posts on the country’s unemployment rate or stock market.
