[maxglute]

PRC axed 30-40 millions / 1/3rd of state iron rice bowl jobs in the 1995-2000s due to SOE reforms (for WTO accession), created northwest rustbelts etc. This ~20% of urban workforce. And it's losing income, housing, healthcare, state schools, pensions. This comparable to US great depression era, or 30 years of USSR shock therapy compressed in ~5 years. No modern western country has remotely gone through anything similar. Modernization/tech eventually lifted all boats etc, so in that sense they're either optimistic or acceptance that tech is inevitable or better to embrace then be left behind which historically haven't worked out, century of humiliation and all that.