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We now return to our regularly scheduled alarm in my head.
1. With the continued withdrawal of foreign capital and manufacturing from the PRC, there is a rising tide of bankruptcies and factory closures. This started pre-Covid, became acute during Covid, and has only increased post-Covid. This is leading to increased political unrest aimed at the PRC at all levels.
PRC Electronics giant, Xin An Electrical located in Shenzhen has announced the sudden dissolution of the company. Shenzhen is a city and special economic zone located in Guangdong province immediately north of Hong Kong. The Xin An closing will directly put thousands of people out of work in the PRC. It will put even more people out of work in the upstream manufacturing companies. Most of these companies are located in Shenzhen city and Guangdong province.
A knock on effect in the reduction of manufacturing in the PRC is that current and former workers are seeing increasing delays in the receipt of wages due. Companies and workers are under severe stress. There is ZERO pressure for increase wages and some pressure to reduce them. It is rising wages since 2010 that started the out-migration of manufacturing in the first place.
The most visible manifestation of this is youth unemployment. Before the CCP pulled official reporting of youth unemployment it was listed at ~23.5% with some PRC economists suggesting it is closer to 45%. The seeds of civil unrest have been planted and being watered on a daily basis.
What is NOT so widely reported is the plight of older blue-collar workers. Laid-off workers over 45 face severe challenges in finding new work. There is pressure not to hire workers over 40. The reason companies won't hire these workers is that while they are the most skilled, they are also the highest paid. The PRC doesn't have the anti age-discrimination laws the US has. Price is everything in the PRC. The Chinese seem to know the price of everything and the value of very little.
The CCP's lasting legacy is the destruction of morals amongst the populace. Lying and corruption are near limitless in the PRC. The two most glaring examples are the existence of sewer or gutter oil and tofu-dreg construction projects. Tofu dregs are the unused bits left over from making tofu. Tofu-dreg has become synonymous with something shoddily built.
That's enough for now. More as I find things worthy of posting. But first I have to go game some.
WWG1WGA
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)