When China's youth unemployment rate reached a record high of 21.3% last year, Beijing did what authoritarian governments do whenever ugly truths emerge — it stopped publishing the data. After fiddling with its methodology for six months, China's National Bureau of Statistics excluded students from the data and Bingo! — by December, youth joblessness had dropped by nearly a third.

Massaging the data, as many China watchers suspect happened, doesn't make the problem go away. In July, after several months of small declines, the youth jobless figure rose sharply again — by a third to 17.1%.

Singapore-based Jiayu Li, senior associate at the public-policy advisory firm Global Counsel, told DW that even the previous data excluded millions of rural workers, who she said "face greater challenges in securing full-time employment," than those in urban centers.

"The official figures don’t accurately capture the true situation on the ground. Even after questionable methodological revisions, the numbers are still rising, highlighting the gravity of the problem," Li said.

While the Chinese economy may no longer be expanding at a double-digit annual rate, as it did in the early 2000s, the Asian titan is still projected to grow 5% this year, a figure most Western countries can only dream of. So, why can't China create enough jobs for the roughly 12 million graduates and millions more school leavers that enter the workforce each year?

Blame structural issues, COVID-19, the sluggish post-pandemic recovery and trade tensions with the West. But just as crippling for economic growth, as well as the employment prospects of many young people, was the far-reaching crackdown by President........

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