By Tomoyuki Tachikawa,
"Red tourism," which involves visiting historically and culturally important sites for the Chinese Communist Party, has been booming in the country, as the year 2021 marks the 100th anniversary of its founding in July.
Many young Chinese people are among the red tourists, but not all of them are unswervingly loyal to the party, with pessimism growing about the future of the nation in the aftermath of excessive societal competition and widening generational economic disparities.
Nevertheless, President Xi Jinping, who is believed to be keen to become China's leader for life, has apparently been putting much more emphasis on strengthening his authority than on taking measures to alleviate concerns among the youth, foreign affairs experts said.
As a result, Xi may be wary about the development of Chinese young people who have no devotion to the ruling party and could become disenchanted with Communist rule.
"In China, more young people have recently been exhausted by a culture of competition and are out of energy," a diplomatic source in Beijing said, adding that the trend of "Tangping," or "lying flat," has been budding on social media platforms in the country.
"Although the Communist Party has pledged to make China the world's superpower, the Tangping generation could become nihilistic. They could disobey the party's instructions ahead. This is a threat to President Xi," the source said.
The Communist Party was established in 1921 in Shanghai. In 1949, its then leader Mao Zedong declared the founding of the People's Republic of China after defeating Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist army and finally ridding the nation of foreign forces.
Three years before the ruling party's centennial, China removed from its Constitution the two-term limit for the president. All eyes are now on whether Xi will be re-elected as leader of the party at its twice-a-decade congress in autumn next year.
Xi has been trying to elevate his status to that of the late Mao and to deify the Communist Party by asking government-authorized religious groups to say, "God elected the party," sources familiar with the matter said.
Demonstrating his confidence that his country has followed the path of "socialism with Chinese characteristics," Xi has expressed eagerness to achieve "the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation."
At an exhibition held at the memorial of the first National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in Shanghai, many photos extolled Xi's charisma, including one showing him surrounded by a large number of smiling students at an elementary school.
In late June, Zhang Shiyi, a senior official at the party's Institute of Party History and Literature, told Kyodo News that the ruling party has "entered a new era" through 2050 since Xi became its head in 2012.
Zhang added Xi's leadership will continue to deepen the policy of reform and opening-up, adopted in 1978, but regional analysts expect it would tighten control on Chinese citizens and attempt to bolster its global clout in the security and economic fields.
Li Jian, a 21-year-old Chinese university student, lined up to go into the Communist Party's memorial in Shanghai on a cloudy June day. He said his father is an employee for a state-owned company.
"I just came here because I am interested in the history of China, not the Communist Party," Li said. "I am worried about the future of my country, but I don't think the Communist Party can deal with several challenges we are facing."
"I don't need a car and a house. I don't want to get involved in a promotion race. I don't want to be tired. I want to live in a stable and calm environment. It is the generation of our parents that received benefits from economic growth led by the party," Li said.
In the 2000s, young people called "Yueguang Zu," or "The Moonlight Clan," basked in the limelight in China. Appearing as a symbol of China's economic expansion, they ate up their entire salary before the end of each month in a bid to enjoy their lives.
Earning a reputation as the "world's factory," China, which has a population of more than 1 billion, overtook Japan as the world's second-biggest economy in 2010, when the Shanghai Expo was held after the Beijing Summer Olympic Games in 2008.
In China, meanwhile, competition for school entrance and career advancement has been intensifying with the middle-income class growing. The situation has frustrated many young people, victims of sharp economic development under a low birthrate.
They are certain to shoulder a greater burden of social welfare and pension expenses as China's population has been rapidly graying due largely to its "one-child policy" introduced in 1979, while they must fork out tidy sums to raise a family in the nation.
Around the China Art Museum, previously the China Pavilion of the 2010 Expo, Wang Wei, a 29-year-old Chinese car salesman, walked with his 3-year-old daughter on a weekend afternoon. He complained about the current social security system at home.
"Even if we work extremely hard, we cannot buy a house against a backdrop of a rise in real estate prices and cannot save money because we should pay huge money for child care, education, nursing, health care and social security," Wang said.
"I don't want to work to death for the Communist Party to attain its goal of making China the world's superpower," he said.
The "one-child policy" was scrapped in 2016. In May, the ruling party also decided to permit married couples to have a third child, in a major policy change to grapple with the negative effects of the country's falling birthrate.
Wang, however, said, "This only puts pressure on young people."
"I want the Communist Party to do more to stabilize our lives and ease fears about the future so that we will be encouraged to have a number of children. Otherwise, I won't listen to what the Communist Party says," he added.
