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Media reports about the employment situation of China's youth have been somewhat contradictory. Low unemployment rates coexist with heightened concern over this issue among China's leadership and population. The author addresses that contradiction by investigating the employment situation of young people in China and demonstrating that they complain about inadequate employment rather than about unemployment per se. In particular, tertiary education graduates, who represent approximately half of all the young people entering the Chinese labour market every year, are concerned about unsatisfying job opportunities, lower-than-expected starting salaries, and declining chances for upward mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Résumé Les médias donnent de la situation de la jeunesse chinoise une image contradictoire, faisant état d'un chômage des jeunes limité, mais aussi d'une préoccupation croissante des autorités et de la population en général quant à l'insertion professionnelle de la tranche d'âge. À l'issue d'une analyse approfondie, l'auteur établit que les jeunes Chinois pâtissent moins d'une pénurie que d'une inadéquation de l'emploi, notamment les diplômés du supérieur parmi eux, soit la moitié environ de ceux qui se portent sur le marché du travail chaque année. Ces diplômés se plaignent également de salaires décevants et de possibilités de mobilité sociale moins bonnes qu'auparavant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social media have both enabled and reinforced a shift towards the personalization of politics and collective action that is also occurring in China. In addition to street actions, the country is seeing a continuously growing number of so-called online mass incidents. While they have been attracting growing scholarly attention, most analyses have been based on anecdotal evidence and have treated netizens as a uniform group without evaluating the event's internal discursive dynamics. In order to assess such micro-blogging incidents' actual potential for political change, we investigate the case of the largest ‘online mass incident’ in China since the advent of Chinese micro-blogging services in 2009, prompted by the crash of two high-speed trains near the city of Wenzhou in July 2011. Drawing on the systematic content analysis of more than 4600 micro-blog posts published in the aftermath of the accident, we analyse the events' discursive dynamics, focusing on the composition, transformation, and radicalization of claims and targets. Our analysis demonstrates that the level of radicalism of the Wenzhou online mass incident is rather moderate and that no radicalization took place before the debate levelled down. While the incident significantly enhanced the tendency in Chinese online activism towards the broadening of the critical debate on national affairs, expectations about a democratizing impact of online debates might be premature. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the face of severe job problems, China's government has adopted a huge stimulus package in a bid to achieve eight per cent economic growth, which is said to guarantee at least enough jobs for the new entrants to the labour market. The real situation, however, will be much grimmer than statistics indicate. Unregistered groups like unemployed rural migrants, job-searching college graduates, laid-off workers and others together with the officially registered unemployed and the new market entrants could add up to 42 million altogether, while even the most optimistic estimates say only around 15 million new jobs could be created in 2009. Nevertheless, the stimulus package demonstrates an at least temporary shift in economic policy from capital-intensive to labour-intensive growth. Additionally, the new initiatives to boost social-security spending could help to address the grievances of the most vulnerable groups in the labour market. The Chinese government's reaction to the emerging employment crisis once again demonstrates the often underestimated adaptability of China's leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On May 1, 2004, the European Union (EU) experienced the largest expansion in its history, a process that has lent new weight to the idea of expanded EU involvement in East Asia. This article examines whether there has been a change in the EU's foreign policy with respect to Taiwan since its fifth enlargement. Evidence for this is sought in the EU's policy statements on Asia and China. The political behavior of the EU has not changed, although there has been a modification in rhetoric. The EU, notwithstanding its claim to be a global actor, continues to keep out of one of the biggest conflicts in East Asia. The new members' interests in the East Asia region are too weak to alter the EU's agenda, and their economic priorities are linked to the programs of the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]