One of the reasons there are no, or low numbers, of homelessness in China is related to culture. In Asian culture, children can stay with their parents for life, without even having to pay rent, and even if they leave their parents' house, they can return whenever they want. Parents will be very happy to welcome them home. Meanwhile, in US culture and western countries, children who are 18 years old have to pay rent or be kicked out by their parents. And when they experience a fall, they cannot return to their parents' house, because they are considered a burden. That is also one of the reasons, many elderly people in the west die alone in nursing homes because their children treat them the way they treat their children.
All true - although nursing homes are becoming more common nowadays, it's an industry for the future, it will need cultural and societal change before everyone accpets them as normal
People care for their elderly as well as they can, but I've seen lots of people (mainly men) fall victim to strokes and need full time care. The family have to pay for this. The Chinese (I can only speak about the North) drink lots of Bai Jiu (白酒）and most men smoke. Which is possibly why they have so many strokes.
@@jerrystakeonchina799, To live in a nursing house or senior home, you need money and most senior's pension income doesn't cover the cost of the housing. That's why there are so many people in North America live in their vehicles, on tents and on the streets. The average government pension is less than $2.000 and an average senior home cost is between $1.500- $4.000 depending the location.
@@jerrystakeonchina799 Perhaps you're right with the younger generation in an evolving society. However, I wouldn't leave my parents in nursing homes considering the loneliness they may feel, not to mention a sense of being abandoned by their own children. I certainly hope that the Chinese culture of obeying and looking after our elders will last a few thousand more years.
You are right about Chinese culture. I’m Chinese & I’m aware of our culture. Parents look after their children, no matter how old they are. In return, the children look after their parents when they get old. We don’t send our parents to old age homes, unless our parents need full time care for health reasons.
Yes, under Xi, the government of China is indeed failing. Xi is not a good leader, everybody knows it in China. Just that, no one dare to say it out loud.
It isn't. It is a failure of the economic operating system known as capitalism. The government itself is just an instrument owned and operated by the capital.
@@winglo1697 True. But I would revise that to say, after Jerry's wonderful vlog here, that temporary homelessness is not an issue if it is not extensive. And the government needs to respond to this. As for homelessness that have some degree of "permanence" to it, it is a totally different category, and of course the government would also need to make sure that it is well diagnosed and does not grow beyond civic control. Thanks Jerry for giving time to his very important topic.
The thing is, the Chinese government actively works to solve any homelessness problems. When people, for whatever reason, end up without a home, government officials will do whatever it takes to find them a home. Often, as Jerry says, it's just a matter of finding them a job which puts them into a dormitory. There'll always be people who slip through the cracks when they are between jobs or between residences, but the government policy is not to have homeless people, and they actively act to implement that policy.
We need to point out that, not all Chinese officials are good. In some parts of China, the officials are corrupt to the core, and no one has the power to challenge them.
I just wish Australia had the same level of " homelessness " as China. Why won't western countries look at some of the solutions China has found for problems facing almost every country? Thanks again Jerry for a clear and factual explanation .
@@user-sf5mq8bl8y 100% agree. Westerners think China and Chinese are evil because the CPC does what it can for it's people. Westerners interpret this as "authoritarian" (a meaningless word they use to describe what they don't like/countries that resist imperialism).
Nonsense. China has many homeless. Can’t believe Jerry doesn’t believe over 1 million . Mental healthcare and social safety net, especially in rural China is appalling. They’re just much better at suppressing info .
after the Chinese revolution, every one living in rural areas of China was granted a piece of land, to fulfill a promise of the revolution. That’s over 80% of the population. In cities, everyone was given a Job and provided some dwelling place. That formed the foundation of modern China.
There little homeless people in China compare to Western and US. Most of them can move back to their home down or villages. If you believe or not, their home are bigger than your home. Most of them want to save money and send back to their family. 😊😊😊😊
When I visited China, I noticed a lot of people, usually older folks and women, sweeping the streets and picking up trash. At conference centers, I noticed a lot of security personnel (they were helpful in other matters too, for example, directions) at a much higher percentage relative to attendees than other countries in the world, these were young and mostly men. I think it is at least one way that China keeps people employed with steady income. I believe it to be a much more dignified form of welfare.
One of my friends, who often comments on these videos, James Siu, visited me in Zhongshan and spent time speaking to people like this in the parks, the drivers he met and, pretty much everyone he could - he tended to bear out much of what I say and found out for himself on his "truth seeking mission"
You do notice a weird pattern - I live in a neighborhood pricing of >100,000 rmb/square. So this is not a poor neighborhood. But I do see 2 or 3 old women or men like to pick up bottles, although I know her son has a far good pay. My mother in law has the same idea, but I asked her not to do that. I have a very good pay, I don’t want that to happen on me.That’s be ridiculously embarrassing.
Some anti China bloggers attribute the rural farmers/villagers sleeping overnight at train stations are homeless when they could be sleeping it rough to while the time for another train hours away. Also there could be unemployed people in the big cities and because of China's hukou system is not eligible for a home in the city and are sleeping rough in between jobs. Some rural migrant workers arrive in cities without a ready job and would be sleeping rough temporarily. This is my understanding.
The *_hukou system_* doesn't prohibit people from buying / renting real estate, tho ! Yes, there are people sleeping in the tunnels. I've seen them. Not many, but, they are there. All of them are poor, and some, they sleep inside the tunnel because, the room they rent is too far off, and it's already too late, and they're tired. So they chose to just crash inside the tunnel overnight. While others, they're from the rural area, first time in the city, had their wallet / phone stolen (or lost somewhere) and they didn't know what to do. Lots of different reasons. I've been in their situation when I was much younger. Occasionally when I'm back to China, I would try to help them.
This reminds me of the crowd camping out in queues the night before the debut of, say, a new iPhone, a new Harry Potter book, or Taylor Swift’s concerts. We can say those were one-night homeless people, too ……
@@kwo-senkuo1663 are you stretching the definition of homelessness too far? By your stretched definition, whenever anyone leaves their home, then they are also considered homeless?
@@user-se7pw4qn6u He's actually being sarcastic, since people act as if anyone sleeping outside is homeless, like people sleeping on the train. He just gave a sillier example to poke fun at that.
Thank you for sharing your insights about homelessness in China, Jerry. We here in the United States Of America is out control about homelessness and the USA’s Government doesn’t care. It’s very sad.
I’ve tried a few times to buy breakfast for people I’ve seen sleeping on the street. They either refuse or run away. A little different than the “career” homeless in the West.
Yes, there is a sense of pride attached to the sense of humility - I don't know if there's a word in English for that but maybe, if we buy them breakfast, they lose face - there are still some beggars, they won't lose face if we give them breakfast!
I don't just 'buy breakfast' for them. I'll sit and talk with them, making contact, getting to know their situation, and then, try helping them to improve their situation. Most of the time, they're simply stuck, and they're confused. Once somebody else point out a possible solution, they would most probably take it. I had been just like them, when I was much younger.
@@kafir9784 Still remember back in the 1980's I volunteered at the Salvation Army's half way house for couple of months. I learned a lot ! I learned that there were *_working_* families who can't afford rent. Mom and dad worked flipping burgers. Their pay were too low for them to feed the children, pay the rent, and clothe them. So they ended up in the street and food kitchen. I also learned that my volunteering at the Salvation Army half way house *_cost other people to lose their income_* ! Apparently, if I volunteer, Salvation Army would need to hire one less homeless folk, and that fella would have no income for that particular day. It's these types of info that I picked up during my volunteering "career" Of course, I stopped volunteering afterward, don't want to add on others' troubles due to my own doings.
Even if China has homeless people, it's nowhere near as many per capita as compared to some western countries. You don't see homeless Chinese in your face like you would in LA or Philadelphia. Some people just want China to be as bad as them. It's like a nosy neighbor who constantly peeks into your garden to see if you have any dead trees. If who lets the dogs out is so curious about Chinese homelessness, i suggest he or she should just fly over to China and find out him/herself, while having a good time there.
Hi Jerry it’s not hard for any Western ( journalist) writer to create homeless people in China. Since there are homeless people all over some of the major cities in the Western countries, there is no reason that a poor country like China does not have homeless people. I certainly understand the difficulties for many Western people to accept any non democratic country that is doing well for its citizens. However your efforts in presenting the truth about China is very much appreciated. Cheers Michael
A difficult topic homelessness, here in Europe they started to calling them roofless people because there are so many of them, it sounds less confrontational for the politicians who are not dealing with the problem.🥺❤️🇨🇳❤️
Changing the name doesn't change the circumstances, homeless, unhomed, vehicular residents, they are all people who need help from society You know Luc, the one thing that no one in China can get is that there are military vets who are homeless - they think that's inconceivable!
China has retained its household registration system. In the early days of the founding of New China, the role of the household registration system was mainly to provide stable living security for urban and rural people from the government level. Rural household registration can allocate agricultural land and housing construction land; urban household registration does not allocate land, only houses. At the same time, we will solve the survival problems and employment arrangements for urban residents with registered permanent residence, allowing them to find jobs in factories, schools and other positions required for urban operations. With the reform and opening up of the household registration system, there are no longer restrictions on the jobs that Chinese people can do. People with rural hukou can take any job they like in the city or convert their hukou to an urban one. People with urban hukou can also rent farmers' land in rural areas to engage in agricultural production, but it is more difficult to transfer from urban hukou to rural hukou. Because this involves land distribution, farmers have low incomes and rely on the land for their livelihoods. In order to prevent urban rich people from arbitrarily converting their household registration to rural household registration and occupying farmers' land, rural land is not allowed to be bought or sold. At the same time, if you want to change your urban household registration to a rural household registration, you can basically only change your household registration through marriage. Coupled with the assistance system, there are no homeless people in China. Of course, some people don't want to go home. For example, a young man leaves his hometown to look for job opportunities in other cities. Unfortunately, no employer wanted to hire him. He had spent all his money but he didn't want to go home. This would put him on the street. Faced with this situation, the Chinese government has no good solution. We can only provide psychological counseling and necessary help. Therefore, there are no homeless people in China. Even if you are deeply in debt and bankrupt, by law the only home you own cannot be auctioned off to pay off your debts unless the creditor is willing to house you for free.
I agree with you. In fact lots pf countried where the homeless do exist, need not be homeless.The reason for homeless is the corruption in the country and missdistronution of wealth.
China has always been “if you’re willing to work, you can make money”. It’s not going to be easy, especially if you have debt or ICU bills to pay. But it’s a place where you can make enough to feed yourself, if you put down your pride. In Canada, putting down your pride won’t even make a difference. So many jobs are outsourced or bots 😅and there’s not enough minimum wage jobs to go around. And consumer spending has gone down. Everyone loses, except big corporations are making record breaking profits
The key difference between China and other countries is the provision of accommodation and low cost food for low paying jobs is the normal rather than exception. Whereas a western minimum wage worker likely expense all of his/her salary on rent, food and bills, a Chinese minimum wage worker have most of their fundamental living cost covered by the employer, and gets to keep most of their salary.
I'd like to provide more detail information: 1. About government support for poverty: There's a specific department called 'Civil Department' (民政部，or 民政局 in local level）， they are responsible for the people who lost capabilities to make a living. They provide funding through semi government organization called 居委会。So real poor people can survive even without family support in most cities. Family and friend still play very important role , especially in undevelopped and more traditional areas. 2. Homeless people in young generation still exists but those are by choice. They are marginal group with quite different values from dominant values of Chinese scociaty( hard working for better life in future, etc). They usually looking for daily jobs instead of long term work as if there's no tomorrow. Enjoy life right after they get paid. They often live in abandoned real estate project buildings, some time on street. They might go back to scociaty when they are older and mature , usually live normally in their hometown. This group is called '三和大神'
@@jerrystakeonchina799 Hey, Uncle Jerry, I hope in the future you can talk about the situation of groups like the“三和大神”, because I have found that many people, including Chinese people, claim that the“三和大神” belongs to the homeless. But I don't think they can be called homeless. They can go back to their families' houses to live, not homeless. Their philosophy is to live in the present, earn only one day or a week of income, and spend most of their time enjoying life. This is certainly not in line with mainstream values, but it is just a difference in life philosophy, not strictly speaking, homeless. Because we know that the definition of homelessness is losing the ability to work, or losing the job they originally had, being unable to obtain job opportunities, not having their own house, and so on.
Great work Jerry. Where I used to live in China there was always one seemingly very dirty homeless woman who would sometimes wonder around naked! She obviously had mental issues. I asked a policeman friend about her and he said that she was well known and had been housed but would just leave and hence she seemed homeless. The police were constantly picking her up and taking her back.
I've seen a similar situation, near a school where I used to work, there was a young man chained to a tree, I spoke with the school about it, they spoke with the police and it turned out the man had mental issues and was violently aggressive, so the best solution was leave him at home, but secure him - personally, I was horrified but this was over 15 yuears ago - I've been past there many times since, in fact, I cycled past the tree only this morning and there's no evidence that he's still there - I would hope he has medication and proper treatment now. China is still developing and mental health is one of the places where development is still behind the West - however, since I've been involved in disabled fundraising since 2005, I now know that it's 100 times better than it was when I first got involved - disabled care in China now exceeds that of my experiences in the West but was 50 years behind, just 15 years ago - I suspect Mental health is similar
I have seen several other videos about this topic recently. You are explaining and summing it up the best! I am thankful for your videos because I think they are a great preparation before going to China (either for work or travel). If I or someone who has watched your channel comes to China, we have better tools to interpret what we see (and not fall for the lies we hear).
There are more and more vloggers doing "poor traveling" videos as income. They often camp in the park or under a bridge as part of the vibe. Probably those people misunderstood by foreigners as "homeless".
That's possible, when we were riding across China, we met a few people also riding across China in different ways and in different directions, for sure, some of them looked like they could use a night in a good hotel and a shower!!!
Yes, the income of these people is generally not low. Their profession is to earn income by creating difficult travel conditions to shoot videos, so they live under bridges or in the wilderness, bring a bicycle and a tent, and attract viewers to earn income through this difficult way of survival. They have their own homes and earn a considerable income through these videos or live broadcasts, but if foreigners or people who are not familiar with the situation see these people, they may think they are homeless, which may cause some misunderstandings.
There is no homeless tent city in China, that is for sure. No one can put up a tent in any city street and live there. Those who do will be arrested and given help (free bus fare, meals, etc) to return to their homes or hukou where he or she will be given government assistance if the family cannot take care of him/her. It is the duty of the local government to provide the care and help needed... getting medical care, find a job for him/her, provide a place to stay, etc. Overall, it is a good system of societal or community care. Certainly there are no millions of homeless on the streets, though an occasional one or two may be found due to a temporary situation.
I already mentioned in another commentary, that when I moved to Brazil and visited the slums, I noticed that you could not find asians there! Later, having contact with the asian district in São Paulo, I learnt that chinese family links are very strong and one would help one another at any time! It is a cultural thing, without any doubt. Jerry, I would very much appreciate you doing a video about the healthcare system in China! Or sent me the link if you already have one!
I think the best person to look at on the Healthcare system would be Lee Barratt, he went through cancer treatment here and has experienced it first hand - I personally have no experience in the system so Lee, who has made videos on it, is defintely more qualifed and more experienced that I will ever be (or at least hope to ever be!)
There are certainly homeless people in China but it is very rare to find them. Thirty to forty thousands would be a good estimate out of 1.4 billion people.
5:40 This practice is also done by migrant Chinese Employers, to migrant Chinese Employees, OUTSIDE of China (in Malaysia, Philippines . . . . etc). Simply put: Employer offers housing and food, with the assurance that the employee stays for a contracted period of time (usually 1 year). And the employer even withhold some of the salary , to be remitted back to the employee's family at the end of the year.
In 2021 I saw what appeared to be a homeless camp for two people in Shenzhen. It was there for at least a couple weeks. This is the only homeless camp I have seen in China in a decade here. Beggars, however, used to be everywhere, and are still around in most cities. They do not appear to be homeless...I would have seen more camps over the years, and many are fairly well groomed.
Government policy drives society - if society is crumbling, then it's because they've been let down by the people they elected to hold it together My next vide - just released a few minutes ago is by John Lander, it's a description of the many ways the Australian government have betrayed the people
@@Andy-P I saw a big demonstration of "Yankee go home" movement in the Philippine. Some people never forget their family got killed by American while ago.
I always say that China has *_practically_* no homelessness, that China has no homelessness *_to speak of._* Of course, China has homelessness, as do all nations, but is it an issue like it is in America or Canada (where I live)? No. It's very easy to find homeless encampments in Toronto and Vancouver...on city streets, in local parks and parking lots. It's even easier in New York City and Los Angeles and San Francisco. It is not so easy in Beijing and Shanghai. The question is why. And, no, it's not because the Chinese government hides the homeless. It's because Chinese government and Chinese society take care of their own to the best of their ability. American/Canadian government and society do not. This is a fact.
I live here in China and Jerry's pretty much got it right. Up here in the North you can't sleep rough in winter, but like he says, they do have 24hr McD's and KFC, and I've seen blokes sleeping rough in the 24hr section of banks where the cashpoints are. If someone has their ID card or their phone stolen, it leaves them in a bit mess. People in that situation might have to rough it for a bit. Especially if they are in the other side of the country. China is massive. There's work around if you're willing to travel, but it's not without its risks. Couples will live apart for months or even years, while their spouse earns money. This is a big difference from the west, and is quite shocking at first.
From what Jerry said, there are temporary homeless people. In the US, you have permanent homeless people that are just down and out. I live in Los Angeles, and here there are tent cities that were up for years. A lot of these homeless people had been homeless for months if not years. They may have mental health issues, substance abuse issues, ex-felons that cannot ever find jobs, or people who are down on their luck. At night, you can see people parking in department store parking lots sleeping in their cars. Some of these people are employed, but they cannot afford to pay for the expensive rents in the city, others might be people that lost their homes, because they couldn't pay their rents or mortgages. There are less homeless people in Eastern Asia, because family members will take in members of their families that fall into economic distress.
USA has 650k homeless people in 2023, according to HUD. It is the richest country, 7 times of the GDP per capita of that of China. China has over 4 times of the population than that of USA. If China has less than 650k * 4 * 7 = 18.2M homeless people, it has a clearly better system/government than the USA. This fact clearly scares/angers the hell out of US politicians because it just shows how incompetent they are at their jobs. And this clearly also scares/angers the hell out of US population because it clearly demonstrates that a perceived inferior system/government is doing much better than theirs. Fact hurts ego.
homelessness used to be more visible in the 80s. It's improved significantly since then as China's economy improved and have more resources to deal with this problem. The last time I saw homeless people was in early 2000 while on a business trip to Shanghai. There were 2 guys, maybe with some sort of mental health issue sleeping on some old sofa behind my hotel. It was a shocker to me as my hometown's only 50mins north of Shanghai and I haven't seen this type of thing in my hometown. but I suppose it'd have been easier to survive as a homeless person in a big city. So if one really wants to see whether there's homelessness in China (and how bad this problem is) they should look at the big cities.
There's a dimension of "homelessness" in China that made me think about "unemployment" here in Australia. There's a base level which unemployment stats doesn't fall below. That is attributed to people who are out of a job because they are moving from one job to another. There are always such people whenever a survey is taken. This figure in percentage terms is small but numerically would be appreciable. So it would be for people moving between accommodation in China. Thanks for a real world snapshot in China.
Hi Jerry. Thanks so much for taking the time to dig into researching the issue of homelessness in China. Of course it is important that governments, any and every, should take care of their citizens. In all my travels in China over more than 30 years, I can’t say I’ve seen people wandering aimlessly with poles of bags of possessions, or sleeping in the streets, in China. In recent times. Although as you said, there must be the odd cases here and there. I have certainly seen increasing numbers of such in Japan. In Tokyo, they practically line some of the parks in downtown areas. But honestly, why would a British journalist care so much about homelessness in China. Why not conserve her energy in raising awareness of such needs in Britain itself??
I guess the report was several years old, I think she probably had better things to do but her editor gave her a task - she wasn't a specialist and it looked very much like most of her reeaerch was through Wikipedia - which tells us a lot about the quality of her work!
For the last 10+ years, I would say mainland China has took care of this issue to the point that it is actually hard to find homeless. I am sure there are some but it's an extremely small number out of the 1.4B+ population. Hong Kong (which is part of China) would be the only exception where you can find homeless people but just not in the scale of some of the cities in the west. Hong Kong is an extreme laissez faire capitalist system and we basically fully financialize almost everything. We basically has applied the practice of speculation and supply/demand manipulation to almost everything. So in terms of accomodation we have a situation that from top to bottom everyone is doing a combination of speculation, market manipulation and extracting profit on it. Case and point, major source of government was land sale (I think they are trying to change that), major property developer has been for decades to use their financial leverage to basically land bank and keep the supply low. This is all the way down to many everyday person doing some form of real estate speculation. This result in many dramatic boom and bust cycles in HK (1983, 1997, 2003, 2023) and the social cost is accumulating. The mainland government was allowing similar practices happening in the many tier 1 cities for a long time but I think they had second thoughts about the a few years ago and kind of pop the bubble themselves. Fun fact: How ridiculous is speculation and extreme financialization is in HK? I was in Hong Kong during Chinese New Year so I order some new bank notes for the Lai See (red envolopes). So I expectg this newly printed banknotes should all be in sequential serial number, right? Uh ah... anything ending in 888 are gone. The bank pull them out to either sell it for more or give it to their preferred high rolling clients.
What a great fun fact, it doesn't surprise me at all - I suspect they do that on the Mainland too. As for the HK situation, my understanding is that the government was given a mandate to fix their housing problems - I guess UK could accuse the Mainland of interferring but they'd look pretty churlish isf they did so, given the reasons China is interferring - not that looking churlish ever stopped the House of Lords doing anything!
@@jerrystakeonchina799 If the mainland bank does the same thing with the bank notes, and if they also allow for practice like in HK to remove or rename floor 4, 13, 14,24,34 and 44...etc. of a building, then you get to add an addendum of Superstitions is probably the most widespread belief here in Shenzhou (Divine Vessel, aka China). 🤣
An interesting video which brought about a thought to mind. One thing peculiar about American hubris that I've seen here is that we tend to project "America" and its values to everywhere we go. In other words, we tend to think in terms that everything is, or should be, done like "Americans do". What I think this does is that we tend to think if something exists in another country, it must be like in our country. This video is an example of that. Homelessness is a big issue in America. In large cities, and even in many smaller cities, it's not unusual to see a fair amount of homelessness. So we tend to project to other countries. But what makes this worse is that we project America's homeless to other countries. By this I mean we don't take into account other country's cultures, values, government policies, etc. We simply think "we do it this way in America, so (using this video as an example) China treats their homeless the same way" so it's plausible that China has a homeless issue and they aren't dealt with effectively by the government. In a way, I think this is a major reason why America and American media's anti-China campaign is so effective. The vast majority of Americans have little to no knowledge of China and Chinese culture so it's relatively simple for our government to mount a really effective disinformation campaign. I could even project this to the Western world vs the Eastern world. It's been my experience that far more "Easterners" have traveled to the West than "Westerners" to the East, plus the fact that Western media dominates global media even though it represents a much smaller percentage of global population.
Yes, you're right, you've identified something called "Cultural Dimensions". The US in particular, but also most Anglo nations, are very good at projecting their own dimesions onto others and wondering why "they aren't the same as us" I used to run business management training courses on this as my Master's Degree was focused on the differences betwen Western Management Philosophy and Chinese Workplace Psychology.
Thanks, Jerry! It's so difficult to get any info on China here in the US. We really need more Westerners like you in China, so we can get to know our future partners and leaders!
Happy to help! And thank you for the question - if you or your friends have more, please feel free to ask away My emails are always open and the address is in the Bio - sometimes, I don't see replies or comments on YT, so for a guaranteed answer, use email
In my (Chinese) city, I walk along the river daily, and I used to see 4 males sleeping under one of the 7 bridges I pass under. In December, the weather became very cold and these people vanished. Now with the weather warming, only 1 of these people has reappeared.
I think a big difference between the US homeless and China is that so many homeless in the US are drug addicts or become drug addicts while homeless. And if they’re a drug addict, they become trapped in a hopeless cycle where any money they get becomes spent on drugs, and not a way out of homelessness. They can’t access treatment because it’s very expensive, once they run low on money, they become tempted by crime. There’s no real social safety net and society does not care enough, so they live out on the streets until they inevitably die of overdose or exposure. It’s tragic but the US’s absolute failure to effectively address drug use is a core factor in the US homelessness crisis.
Economy is meant to be the supplying of the respective area by using as less resources for as much gain as possible which sometimes (like with science) needs to become higher for future savings. But that is just a dimension of reality, if you start ignoring your neighbours as a domestic economist (economy at home), your customers as a private economist (economy at companies) or the rest of the world as an state economist, you're better of not believing you will get away unharmed. The bigger the economy is planned the better it is but all economist mustn't ignore the world beyond their own economy. Homelessness is just an indication some economist (abroad or at home) are not caring for others and it is not something a state can just cause or solve in a short time because there is always a lot more damage done which needs remedy. Homelessness and Famines in China were caused by colonizations likewise in Africa and they still claim the victims are the culprits.
There is unfortunate “homeless” in every single country. Being a highly populated country, I’m sure there is homeless in China too. However, I totally understand what you said. I grew up in Taiwan, I remember the local police will regularly visit our home and validate every single person registered to this address, police will note if any member is in military service, work out of town, etc. So China mainland is probably doing exactly the same. Hence, there can never be permanent homeless but in transit definitely exists. I did see a video on RUclips showing people sleeping in a tunnel. This whole concept probably sound “big brother” to westerners but it actually serves important protection that missing person is rare and we always know where our family members are.
My pennyworth; When I was travelling around China a decade ago, the nearest I saw to 'homeless' people were obviously rural people sitting with all their belongings at the front of train stations. Mainly in Beijing. I'm sure they had come looking for work in the cities, but I have no idea of how they go about it. Don't know if there are any agencies that help them or anything like that. Anyway, it was 10 years ago - situation may be different now. .
There are always "rough sleepers" around train stations and yes, there are plenty of agencies - also, if they take a walk around any industrial estate, they'll see plenty of signs for workers wanted - there are, despite what media might tell us, still plenty of opportunities - it may not be what they want, but if they want to work, it's often there for them - some cities more than others - I've seen this recently in Shenzhen, but in Dongguan there are a lot less opporutnities - hence the movement of people!
About 10 years ago I used to see an old lady who lived rough around Beijing station. I expect she's passed now. But most of the people around stations are in transit.
@@jerrystakeonchina799 I know about the 'rough sleepers' round train stations - I used to be one of them! I moved from the Black County in the UK Midlands down south the Brighton in the late 1970s, to find work. And for a time, I was homeless and sleeping rough. But I got myself fixed up, and now I'm happily retired after running my own business for 30 years! But I'll never forget those days - I know every homeless person has their own story, and their own potential, if only a society could find a way to get them on their feet. For example, I used to do a lot of voluntary work, but that has been banned for the unemployed now - they are supposed to be looking for work 24/7. That is just vindictive, because voluntary work is a fantastic way of finding a skill, and getting into the workforce. Don't know if that is applicable to China though - perhaps they would regard the need for voluntary work as a failure of the system. Which it is, in a way.
@@jerrystakeonchina799 Funnily enough, when I moved to Brighton from my home in the Midlands looking for work in the late 1970s, I was a 'rough sleeper' who spent time around train stations! So I am more intimately familiar with this issue than most. I'm very well aware that every person has their own story, and skills, just waiting for an opportunity. I had a few months homelessness, then a few years in bedsit land, but eventually I created my own business, and I'm happily retired after running it for 30 years! I'm old enough to remember factories with 'Vacancies' signs outside, but that was 50 years ago - you never see them in the UK now. Good luck to those in China who go into the cities looking for work! I'm sure they have more chances in China that folk in the UK do now. Everything has become so brutal here.
There are plenty of homeless in Hong Kong. They often spend the night in McDonalds in certain districts. It’s very difficult for them to find a bench to lay on. Most of them have arm rests that make laying flat impossible. Most of the sheltered areas like underpasses have hostile architecture built in now too.
To Who Let The Dog Out 10-7: China is arguably second to none in resolving the homelessness issue for its people because of its unique & comprehensive land reform done for the nation some 70 years ago. Under the reform, all lands of the country belong to the whole people & the government manages the uses of the lands on behalf of the people & to the best interests of the people. This is a major advantage that many foreign countries do not have in dealing with their homelessness problems. The price China did pay on the land reform in the 1950s was that it took away the vested interests of the rich landlords to provide the requisite lifeline to the poor & starving majority. Through execution of the land reforms, not only poor people have opportunities to live in safe homes, grassroot farmers no longer have to pay massive rents to greedy & exploitive landlords only to gain enough for living in poverty, but would have hopes & opportunities for bettering their living standards in their future.
The only “homeless” people in China are the elderly who may not have family around to house them or they simply prefer to be on their own. Even if there are homeless people in China - as western agencies love to claim - they are not drug addicts like many are in western countries. With a population of 1.5 billion, even if there are 3 million who are homeless, the proportion of these people against the total population pales in comparison to so-called developed countries like the US, Britain and Canada.
I hung out at a Mcdonalds in HK around midnight. There are homeless seniors sleeping there. I don't think they're technically homeless. More like shift workers or working poor. Also, homeless in the west is often a result of addiction. I've yet to see a homeless addict in china, knowing their tough narcotics laws and social taboos.
Agreed, I think HK has a more serious issue than the Mainland, or even Macau - in my opinion, that's a British legacy. The Mainland government has kept out of it so far, as per the Agreement of the Joint Declaration but I understand they have now issued an edict to HK to fix the housing problems there
Jerry I was banned on the SCMP because I spoke the truth about HK's housing crisis. I didn't say anything too inflammatory. But I pointed out HK's priorities. Billionaire prince get the red carpet, ooh and aahs, and perks for opening a family office. While the rest of you peons can live in cage/coffin homes. Well it's the truth. Maybe they should rename it McHomeless.
中山? My grandpa birthplace before he came to Malaysia. Anyway, there are homeless people in every country. Better question maybe can an able person afford a place to live if he/she work at minimum wage.
Yes, I live in Zhongshan, in guangdong, your Grandpa's birthplace. And yes, every person who gets a job also gets, as part of the package, an allowance for home ownership, first home owners also get tax breaks and mortgage interest relief on income tax - home ownership in China is over 90% and unencumbered home ownership is well over 70% - much better than the developed world
Search the beggars village in Gansu province, where the villagers use money that they begged from big cities and built mansions for their homes, they are richer than u can imagine
Homelessness is everywhere in the world. It happens in every political system. Be it communist, socialist or capitalist. However it depends on the able leader who cares and takes prompt action to help.
With a population of over 1.4b, which is 4.17 time that of the USA, there are bound to be many poor & less fortunate people who finds it difficult to make ends meet. Another vlogger, Gweilo 60, highlighted one of the places where some Chinese people are taking temporary shelter, but he has not investigated why these people are staying in that place. ruclips.net/video/0wU7K4OopNE/видео.html
As you said, a person can have a residential address, live elsewhere or sleep in a restaurant as you saw, and still have a bank account, so the fact they have a bank account does not necessarily mean they're not homeless. If you can't afford a stable place to lay your head, working or not, you're homeless. That includes couch-surfing, which is how so many college students are surviving these days. Homelessness was once a sign of national economic depression, now it's treated like a personal problem, only. The western labor force eventually organized against the Company Town because companies kept workers/residents in debt peonage forever and provided little to no healthcare or safety net. What are workers' rights like there? Can a company make you work 16 hrs/day for that bed in a dorm that might be the only alternative to homelessness if they want to earn and send money home? Is the food provided good quality or designated by income? I expect China realizes it needs a happy healthy workforce to sustain its economic growth. If people are too mentally ill to hold a job or pay bills despite the safety net, does China just let them wander with their worldly goods until they succumb to illness? Does the govt try to force relatives to take them in? Does it "re-educate" them, or their relatives if they refuse to take them in? Every society has people dealing with addictions, how does China handle it? Does China have mental hospitals where some people never leave except in a casket? I've seen Housing First programs help people overcome addictions but sometimes the former addicts don't get well enough to go back to work, so do those just get put on the disability rolls? Here in the US, the mentally ill are supposed to find their way thru meager social services to prove their eligibility for disability in a system that automatically rejects claims the first time they're submitted, more likely accepted on appeals. That perseverance can't generally be expected from the homeless mentally ill. There are now nursing homes in China to care for the elderly who lose their faculties, it is not always left up to the descendants to care for them, but it appears China has expertise and premier services in gerontology and keeps their elders healthier much, much longer. If younger people can't find work or won't work, and they take advantage of their elders, who helps the elders and where do the younger relatives get sent? I'm not trying for a "gotcha", I'm trying to figure out how the US could do better. I know for a fact that growing up I saw a sum total of two obviously homeless people in 22 years in NYC's five burroughs with 10 million people. Now there are homeless people in every park even in this affluent community of less than 20,000 where you can barely buy a shack for less than a million bucks. What did we have when I was growing up? Glad you asked! We had a system where homes were for living, not house-flipping, and apartment buildings and houses were for small landlords willing to take risks for profit, not for gamblers in Wall St. We earned enough to pay for a roof over our heads, no matter what. We had a welfare system where those who could not go thru the process to get certified "disabled" still got enough money from the state to rent a cheap place with at the very least shared kitchens and bathrooms. I even remember apartments in NY's lower east side that had bathtubs in the kitchen. Now we have more bureaucratic requirements, less available housing, less services, CEOs "earning" thousands of times what their workers get paid and paying almost no taxes so long as they can afford the best accountants and lawyers. China seems very aware of those threats to the social fabric, so I wonder about the details and if they're transferable. Since we now have an entire media system telling us that any government assistance to solve social issues is a communist threat, I expect we'll ignore the lessons we could learn from China and from our own once more civilized history. Go figure. We were more civilized when we succeeded in defeating communism here with more socialist, humanitarian policies and funding.
If you think you've defeated communism, I think you're delusional, sorry to say that but China is just about to show you how socialism works so much better than your version. Every question you've asked me can be answered in a positive way - workers rights are very strong, no the company cannot make anyone work longer than 8 hours in a day without paying overtime and not more than 48 hours in a week legally, although there are of course some that do, if they are reported to the government, the company will suffer consequences - China is the very opposite of the USA - everything you know about it, is wrong. Homelessness in the USA is an increasing problem, as are drugs, gun deaths, violent crime and poverty - as is your health system and your educational system - your media feeds you lies on a daily basis and you repeat those lies as truths. I'm really sorry to tell you, you are 100% misled about everything you think you know about China and your questions here demonstrate that - keep watching my videos, read Chinese media, its available online in English and you will never find a lie in it - admittedly, they won't always tell the entire story, but they will never lie to you. Try it - the globsal Times, China Daily, People's Daily, CGTN all have English language online and you will learn the truth
The Chinese population is sometimes too pragmatic. Rather be homeless for a little bit until finding a roommate to share a studio apartment. I've heard many stories like this in Shenzhen. 2 girls sharing a studio apartment, each paying RMB 800 per month, but making about rmb7000 each. They end up saving up to RMB 50,000 in a year in hopes to get married and have a good financial start to their marriage life.
I know, it's crazy, one friend of mine who owns a company here in Zhongshan once told me his staff "live on vapours". They seem to work for a few months and have enough saved for a deposit on an apartment or buy a car - how is it even possible he asks!
During the past 75 years of PRC, homelessness has never been an obvious problem like in democratic India. There was nothing in China remotely resembles the slums in democratic India and Phillipines. There has never been any slum in PRC like those in India and Philippines.
The western definition, at least for those vloggers, of homelessness is probably people sleeping on the street. As you mentioned in the video, pretty much every Chinese could have a home to go back to. It's up to individuals whether to live there. I've watched Chinese vlogger video showing people sleeping outside a Shenzhen train station. They are either unemployed waiting for an offer, or self-employed who didn't want to spend on accommodations. Not everyone wants hand out from the government. Handing out money doesn't solve any problem neither. Foreigners who don't understand Chinese system and culture will get things wrong most of the time. A million+ homeless people? I might as well belief in Santa climbing down the chimney.
I really can’t help feeling that those who ask about homelessness in China again and again just can’t accept that people are living much better lives in China. In their small and petty minds, China can’t ever possibly be better than their countries, and since their countries have worsening homelessness problem, then China must have multitudes of homeless people. How pathetic! As usual, liked and shared 👍
Thank you for this fascinating insight. I've also heard that the government took all the homeless off the streets a while ago and housed them in apartments. Not sure how much of this is true.
There were people sleeping rough in Shanghai during a particularly cold spell a couple of years ago and the police did "sweep them up" and house them until the weather improved If you want truth about what's happening in china, the best places to go are the Chinese media and Chinese government official releases, not Western media!
Would there be a significant number of refugees from North Korea or Myanmar for example, who might be homeless in China? Or is that usually taken care of quickly by the government?
No, there are not. Each of those countries, near the border has ethnic minorities, who are Chinese but they are not refugees - I think in both cases, the border controls are quite strong and they aren't allowed to cross - by the same token, in each of those countries, there are Chinese people who live there with those nationalities - a throwback to the days of less restrictions on the borders. The problems in both countries that you might read about in Western media are not the same as the problems we read about in Chinese media - I haven't been to the border with either but I know plenty of people who have, there are not floods of people attempting to cross, there never have been.
Homeless encampments exist in every nation throughout time, and it's one of those things at least modern governments are obliged to solve. Whether the million homeless cited by this Jenny person takes into account of the Hukou system, or the complexity of the individual, or the count is real at all, is irrelevant...it's not her country, why the hell should anyone in the West care? I mean, if it's true, is the US going to send aid to help the homeless in China? If not, and China has ZERO homeless, it still makes to difference to all the encampments plaguing the cities even countries across the US.
When it comes to the reasons why there are so few homeless people in China, it is impossible not to mention China's land policy. At a time when 95% of the people were farmers, it was achieved that everyone had land to farm. In the earliest land policy, individual peasants owned land outright and could trade it freely. Thus there was a wave of land annexation in China in the early years of the founding of the PRC. The Chinese are historically oriented and know what evils land annexation can bring. Then the land policy was changed, all the land was nationalized, and the rural land was owned by the rural collective. jerry Talking about the hukou, if your hukou moves out of the countryside to the city, then the land under your name will be returned to the village collective and redistributed. But the house built on the land is completely personal property, can be inherited, can be bought and sold, no property tax, no inheritance tax. The Chinese people emphasize family harmony, and basically you can say that all Chinese people have an ancestral house in the countryside, so that when you lose everything, there is always a place for you to stay.
Can confirm there ARE homeless people in China but depending on when and where you are. For instance, I've seen no homeless in Shanghai (top tier city) for the entire 4 years I lived there from 2020 to 2024, but saw 3 homeless people in Guilin (lower tier city) during a weekend I spent there in 2023. Also I grew up in Beijing before 2008 and there were a lot of homeless people back then but none right now. In conclusion, I won't call those sources incorrect but people do need to pay attention to the time and location - rather than treating China a homogenous place.
You're right but what's the definition of homeless? Is it a street dweller, no matter the reason, or is it a persn who has been forced onto the street by circumstances - if it's the former, then China has many, if it's the latter, China has very few. Poverty is the usual reason, and not one person is "forced" through poverty onto the streets in China, some people with mental health issues are and that's something that needs addressing
When you said poverty has been eradicated i knew you were 1000% truth telling as someone living in china no one is poor since it has been eradicated. There is definitely no slowdown in the economy just many empty ghost towns, most western companies has withdrawn. There are so many jobs. You must travel everywhere in china just because you didnt see homelessness it means its verified. Getting an address is impossible ppl dont have a way of getting one.
Anyone can get an address, there are a glut of empty homes on the market, some for rental and some for sale - I'm not sure what you mean by people can't get an address, perhaps you mean they can't easily transfer their hukou?
Even assuming the 1-3 million figures is real, that is still a relatively small number compare the overall population size. Homelessness in Asian countries does exist, just not in the same scale that most people in the west are accustom to. Even in Scandinavian countries, is is also somewhat less than say in the UK or the US. Ultimately, I think one should take a look to see if the situation has improved over time and if the govt is doing anything about it. One tend to find more people wondering around with bundle of their processions just likewhat you described in about 12-15 years ago. These days it is just not as common to see them, at least no at the same numbers of what it used to. What is also less common in major Chinese cities is unlicensed petty traders has also been somewhat absence compare to other major Asian cities. The one thing I also find completely disappeared these days are random people who come to you asking for money with myriad of excuses such as they are trapped in the city with no money and asked for some money to get a bus ticket home. Beggars (not sure if this is the right word of it) are all but gone these days, the last time I encountered one was in 2010 in Yiwu, even then it is the only example I can think of in the last 15 years.
I was from China over 50 years ago and now live in Canada. I travelled to China almost every year. I did see beggars in every cities I visited in China maybe 30 years ago. China has changed a lot in a good way in last 30 years. I can't remember when was the last time I saw a beggar or homeless anywhere in China. On the other hand, number of homeless is just keep on rising here in Vancouver, Canada.
Chinese homeless are different from the west or other places. chinese homeless are normally they move to the city or to a new place, they have no home yet, they stay with their extended family or rent cheap runday places. All you will see a few people do camps on subway cross, these are people from the countryside come to town looking for work and perhaps they don't want to burn up all their money. in china normal people get a job with rooms as part of the jobs. in the uk, people are homeless, they have difficulty and extreme poverty and mental problems, often they are not clear, drugs abuse and even do illegal means to get money. if you walk pass a chinese homeless, all you see them don't make contact with you or want to beg money from you. i have visited china for 30 years, i rare see any homeless people. . but homeless are in every country, for chinese homeless mean refugees.
The difference is China is pro-active. In the US, you need a physical address to apply for any benefit. And if you don't apply, they don't care at all. Everything in the west is bureaucracy. You can't get anything unless you have proper paperwork. I am sure China is probably similar but they may actually have police or other people who would involve in helping people who can't help themselves. Most of these so called homeless people in China seems to be transitional workers. In the west, these homeless people like where they are. They don't pay rent. They can steal water and electricity. And most of them are homeless in nice areas with good weather. They can go into to harass businesses to get free food. In some sense, it is understandable. Who can afford $3000 rent and have to pay $20 lunch.
That was true years ago (I don’t know how the situation is nowadays）that majority of the employers will provide housing for the employees in China and some Asia countries. This is especially true for workers in large factories. When I had a restaurant in the US, the Chinese or some other Asian whom I interviewed, frequently asked me if housing is provided. Personally I find it’s hard to get short term rentals in the USA, The process of renting a house/ apt nowadays is time consuming, more requirements and higher standards. I do understand the necessity for it. I simply stating what I have observed.
It's true, most, if not all factories would provide accommodation - I had a coffee shop and needed to provide a three bedroom apartment for my four staff - the two youngest lads shared a room - they thought it was fine because in factories there will be 6 or 8 to a room
Please watch her channel about China. She is a S African who has lived/worked in China for about 5 years now. Her mother supposedly uprooted herself from S Africa to live in China.
First of all, the number of homeless people in the U.S. vs China are day and night. Given China has 1.4B people. 1 million ( if is true) is still low. Besides, homeless people in China don't do drugs and they don't commit crimes like the Americans.
Jerry would you mind to tell us about pensioners living in China and what is it like to have benefits there and does it effect foreign pensioners by living in China?
Government pensions from Australia are not paid in China, I have a friend here who worked all his life in Australia and now lives on a superannuation, he's 80. But Australia will not pay him his pension - it's a matter that should be taken to court to resolve but he says it's not worth it. I receive a British police pension here without a problem and I have superannuation in Australia that I don't yet claim but can, it's my money they will pay it As for Chinese people, it's getting better, I made a video a few weeks ago about getting old in China: ruclips.net/video/Hm1Ph_JHUBk/видео.html
Well said. I'm thinking China has been doing quite well in the last couple of decades. And they have certainly helped their own citizens with plenty of new projects. Also making life better for some African countries. I understand that it is quid pro quo, but it is more than any other countries are doing.
An interesting point that is NEVER mentioned in any western media I've seen is that China doesn't always help African countries out of "quid pro quo" - even when China was impoverished and had virtually no foreign trade, Mao insisted on supporting several African countries that were in a worse conditions - I'll make a video of this in the coming weeks
One of the reasons there are no, or low numbers, of homelessness in China is related to culture.
In Asian culture, children can stay with their parents for life, without even having to pay rent, and even if they leave their parents' house, they can return whenever they want. Parents will be very happy to welcome them home.
Meanwhile, in US culture and western countries, children who are 18 years old have to pay rent or be kicked out by their parents. And when they experience a fall, they cannot return to their parents' house, because they are considered a burden.
That is also one of the reasons, many elderly people in the west die alone in nursing homes because their children treat them the way they treat their children.
All true - although nursing homes are becoming more common nowadays, it's an industry for the future, it will need cultural and societal change before everyone accpets them as normal
People care for their elderly as well as they can, but I've seen lots of people (mainly men) fall victim to strokes and need full time care. The family have to pay for this.
The Chinese (I can only speak about the North) drink lots of Bai Jiu (白酒）and most men smoke. Which is possibly why they have so many strokes.
@@jerrystakeonchina799, To live in a nursing house or senior home, you need money and most senior's pension income doesn't cover the cost of the housing. That's why there are so many people in North America live in their vehicles, on tents and on the streets. The average government pension is less than $2.000 and an average senior home cost is between $1.500- $4.000 depending the location.
@@jerrystakeonchina799
Perhaps you're right with the younger generation in an evolving society. However, I wouldn't leave my parents in nursing homes considering the loneliness they may feel, not to mention a sense of being abandoned by their own children. I certainly hope that the Chinese culture of obeying and looking after our elders will last a few thousand more years.
You are right about Chinese culture. I’m Chinese & I’m aware of our culture. Parents look after their children, no matter how old they are. In return, the children look after their parents when they get old. We don’t send our parents to old age homes, unless our parents need full time care for health reasons.
It is absolutely astounding that China takes care of everyone the way it does.
Homelessness is an indication of failures of a government.
Yes, under Xi, the government of China is indeed failing.
Xi is not a good leader, everybody knows it in China.
Just that, no one dare to say it out loud.
It isn't.
It is a failure of the economic operating system known as capitalism.
The government itself is just an instrument owned and operated by the capital.
Homelessness is a world-wide feature, regardless of what country - the wealthiest, the poor .....Europe, America, Asia Africa ...........
@@winglo1697 Well worldwide there are more so-called Western liberal democracies than Chinese socialism countries. May be that's why. 🙄🙄🙄🙄
@@winglo1697 True. But I would revise that to say, after Jerry's wonderful vlog here, that temporary homelessness is not an issue if it is not extensive. And the government needs to respond to this. As for homelessness that have some degree of "permanence" to it, it is a totally different category, and of course the government would also need to make sure that it is well diagnosed and does not grow beyond civic control. Thanks Jerry for giving time to his very important topic.
The thing is, the Chinese government actively works to solve any homelessness problems. When people, for whatever reason, end up without a home, government officials will do whatever it takes to find them a home. Often, as Jerry says, it's just a matter of finding them a job which puts them into a dormitory. There'll always be people who slip through the cracks when they are between jobs or between residences, but the government policy is not to have homeless people, and they actively act to implement that policy.
Yeah, but the china derange people would see that as force labor. 🤣 There is no winning them already made up their minds to be useless greifters.
We need to point out that, not all Chinese officials are good.
In some parts of China, the officials are corrupt to the core, and no one has the power to challenge them.
I just wish Australia had the same level of " homelessness " as China. Why won't western countries look at some of the solutions China has found for problems facing almost every country?
Thanks again Jerry for a clear and factual explanation .
因为我们在西方国家的故事里扮演“坏人”的角色，美国扮演“英雄”。
White supremacy forbids them to follow China.
Homeless don't vote or contribute to the election campaign
@@user-sf5mq8bl8y 100% agree. Westerners think China and Chinese are evil because the CPC does what it can for it's people. Westerners interpret this as "authoritarian" (a meaningless word they use to describe what they don't like/countries that resist imperialism).
Nonsense. China has many homeless. Can’t believe Jerry doesn’t believe over 1 million . Mental healthcare and social safety net, especially in rural China is appalling. They’re just much better at suppressing info .
after the Chinese revolution, every one living in rural areas of China was granted a piece of land, to fulfill a promise of the revolution. That’s over 80% of the population. In cities, everyone was given a Job and provided some dwelling place. That formed the foundation of modern China.
There little homeless people in China compare to Western and US. Most of them can move back to their home down or villages. If you believe or not, their home are bigger than your home. Most of them want to save money and send back to their family. 😊😊😊😊
Absolute nonsense. Appalling mental healthcare. Clearly more than US and EU combined .
When I visited China, I noticed a lot of people, usually older folks and women, sweeping the streets and picking up trash. At conference centers, I noticed a lot of security personnel (they were helpful in other matters too, for example, directions) at a much higher percentage relative to attendees than other countries in the world, these were young and mostly men. I think it is at least one way that China keeps people employed with steady income. I believe it to be a much more dignified form of welfare.
One of my friends, who often comments on these videos, James Siu, visited me in Zhongshan and spent time speaking to people like this in the parks, the drivers he met and, pretty much everyone he could - he tended to bear out much of what I say and found out for himself on his "truth seeking mission"
You do notice a weird pattern - I live in a neighborhood pricing of >100,000 rmb/square. So this is not a poor neighborhood. But I do see 2 or 3 old women or men like to pick up bottles, although I know her son has a far good pay.
My mother in law has the same idea, but I asked her not to do that. I have a very good pay, I don’t want that to happen on me.That’s be ridiculously embarrassing.
I am from Macau and visit the mainland quite often. Never seen on personally.
Excessive homelessness is a reflection of a government's indifference, inaction & incompetence
Some anti China bloggers attribute the rural farmers/villagers sleeping overnight at train stations are homeless when they could be sleeping it rough to while the time for another train hours away. Also there could be unemployed people in the big cities and because of China's hukou system is not eligible for a home in the city and are sleeping rough in between jobs. Some rural migrant workers arrive in cities without a ready job and would be sleeping rough temporarily. This is my understanding.
This is pretty much what the video says, thank you for your validation
The *_hukou system_* doesn't prohibit people from buying / renting real estate, tho !
Yes, there are people sleeping in the tunnels. I've seen them. Not many, but, they are there.
All of them are poor, and some, they sleep inside the tunnel because, the room they rent is too far off, and it's already too late, and they're tired. So they chose to just crash inside the tunnel overnight.
While others, they're from the rural area, first time in the city, had their wallet / phone stolen (or lost somewhere) and they didn't know what to do.
Lots of different reasons.
I've been in their situation when I was much younger.
Occasionally when I'm back to China, I would try to help them.
This reminds me of the crowd camping out in queues the night before the debut of, say, a new iPhone, a new Harry Potter book, or Taylor Swift’s concerts. We can say those were one-night homeless people, too ……
@@kwo-senkuo1663 are you stretching the definition of homelessness too far? By your stretched definition, whenever anyone leaves their home, then they are also considered homeless?
@@user-se7pw4qn6u He's actually being sarcastic, since people act as if anyone sleeping outside is homeless, like people sleeping on the train. He just gave a sillier example to poke fun at that.
Thank you for sharing your insights about homelessness in China, Jerry. We here in the United States Of America is out control about homelessness and the USA’s Government doesn’t care. It’s very sad.
Nobody will be left behind , everyone moves forward as "One for All and All for one"
🇨🇳
I’ve tried a few times to buy breakfast for people I’ve seen sleeping on the street. They either refuse or run away. A little different than the “career” homeless in the West.
Yes, there is a sense of pride attached to the sense of humility - I don't know if there's a word in English for that but maybe, if we buy them breakfast, they lose face - there are still some beggars, they won't lose face if we give them breakfast!
I don't just 'buy breakfast' for them.
I'll sit and talk with them, making contact, getting to know their situation, and then, try helping them to improve their situation.
Most of the time, they're simply stuck, and they're confused.
Once somebody else point out a possible solution, they would most probably take it.
I had been just like them, when I was much younger.
"career" homeless!😂😂😂😂
@@kafir9784 Still remember back in the 1980's I volunteered at the Salvation Army's half way house for couple of months.
I learned a lot !
I learned that there were *_working_* families who can't afford rent.
Mom and dad worked flipping burgers. Their pay were too low for them to feed the children, pay the rent, and clothe them.
So they ended up in the street and food kitchen.
I also learned that my volunteering at the Salvation Army half way house *_cost other people to lose their income_* !
Apparently, if I volunteer, Salvation Army would need to hire one less homeless folk, and that fella would have no income for that particular day.
It's these types of info that I picked up during my volunteering "career"
Of course, I stopped volunteering afterward, don't want to add on others' troubles due to my own doings.
@@kafir9784 my reply to you has been deleted by yt
Even if China has homeless people, it's nowhere near as many per capita as compared to some western countries. You don't see homeless Chinese in your face like you would in LA or Philadelphia. Some people just want China to be as bad as them. It's like a nosy neighbor who constantly peeks into your garden to see if you have any dead trees. If who lets the dogs out is so curious about Chinese homelessness, i suggest he or she should just fly over to China and find out him/herself, while having a good time there.
Agreed - come and have a look is a great solution - as Xi says, people to people exchanges are the key
Anti-China rethoric comes from the same playbook.
From Langley.
... and from Taiwan and Japan.
Which both follow the playbook of the USA aka IOU-country, which is the private poodle of that tiny country in the ME.
... and from India which seems to have a "hang-up" over China's progress worse than the U.S.
@@taiwanstillisntacountry For that, I can only exclaim:
Hail, Israel, *_MY LORD !_*
@@user-sf1nq9uj7p Actually, there was no such thing as "India" before the Brits arrived on that sub-continent
Hi Jerry
it’s not hard for any Western ( journalist) writer to create homeless people in China.
Since there are homeless people all over some of the major cities in the Western countries, there is no reason that a poor country like China does not have homeless people.
I certainly understand the difficulties for many Western people to accept any non democratic country that is doing well for its citizens.
However your efforts in presenting the truth about China is very much appreciated.
Cheers
Michael
Thanks Michael
A difficult topic homelessness, here in Europe they started to calling them roofless people because there are so many of them, it sounds less confrontational for the politicians who are not dealing with the problem.🥺❤️🇨🇳❤️
Changing the name doesn't change the circumstances, homeless, unhomed, vehicular residents, they are all people who need help from society
You know Luc, the one thing that no one in China can get is that there are military vets who are homeless - they think that's inconceivable!
Another word often used in Canada and the US is "unhoused". Anything to deny/conceal the reality of homelessness.
China has retained its household registration system. In the early days of the founding of New China, the role of the household registration system was mainly to provide stable living security for urban and rural people from the government level. Rural household registration can allocate agricultural land and housing construction land; urban household registration does not allocate land, only houses. At the same time, we will solve the survival problems and employment arrangements for urban residents with registered permanent residence, allowing them to find jobs in factories, schools and other positions required for urban operations. With the reform and opening up of the household registration system, there are no longer restrictions on the jobs that Chinese people can do. People with rural hukou can take any job they like in the city or convert their hukou to an urban one. People with urban hukou can also rent farmers' land in rural areas to engage in agricultural production, but it is more difficult to transfer from urban hukou to rural hukou. Because this involves land distribution, farmers have low incomes and rely on the land for their livelihoods. In order to prevent urban rich people from arbitrarily converting their household registration to rural household registration and occupying farmers' land, rural land is not allowed to be bought or sold. At the same time, if you want to change your urban household registration to a rural household registration, you can basically only change your household registration through marriage. Coupled with the assistance system, there are no homeless people in China. Of course, some people don't want to go home. For example, a young man leaves his hometown to look for job opportunities in other cities. Unfortunately, no employer wanted to hire him. He had spent all his money but he didn't want to go home. This would put him on the street. Faced with this situation, the Chinese government has no good solution. We can only provide psychological counseling and necessary help. Therefore, there are no homeless people in China. Even if you are deeply in debt and bankrupt, by law the only home you own cannot be auctioned off to pay off your debts unless the creditor is willing to house you for free.
Thank you for adding the context and nuance to the story
I agree with you.
In fact lots pf countried where the homeless do exist, need not be homeless.The reason for homeless is the corruption in the country and missdistronution of wealth.
China has always been “if you’re willing to work, you can make money”. It’s not going to be easy, especially if you have debt or ICU bills to pay. But it’s a place where you can make enough to feed yourself, if you put down your pride.
In Canada, putting down your pride won’t even make a difference. So many jobs are outsourced or bots 😅and there’s not enough minimum wage jobs to go around. And consumer spending has gone down. Everyone loses, except big corporations are making record breaking profits
👍
The key difference between China and other countries is the provision of accommodation and low cost food for low paying jobs is the normal rather than exception.
Whereas a western minimum wage worker likely expense all of his/her salary on rent, food and bills, a Chinese minimum wage worker have most of their fundamental living cost covered by the employer, and gets to keep most of their salary.
I'd like to provide more detail information:
1. About government support for poverty:
There's a specific department called 'Civil Department' (民政部，or 民政局 in local level）， they are responsible for the people who lost capabilities to make a living. They provide funding through semi government organization called 居委会。So real poor people can survive even without family support in most cities. Family and friend still play very important role , especially in undevelopped and more traditional areas.
2. Homeless people in young generation still exists but those are by choice. They are marginal group with quite different values from dominant values of Chinese scociaty( hard working for better life in future, etc). They usually looking for daily jobs instead of long term work as if there's no tomorrow. Enjoy life right after they get paid. They often live in abandoned real estate project buildings, some time on street. They might go back to scociaty when they are older and mature , usually live normally in their hometown. This group is called '三和大神'
Thank you for adding that, I wonder if my meeting in KFC can be classified as 三和大神'
@@jerrystakeonchina799 Hey, Uncle Jerry, I hope in the future you can talk about the situation of groups like the“三和大神”, because I have found that many people, including Chinese people, claim that the“三和大神” belongs to the homeless.
But I don't think they can be called homeless. They can go back to their families' houses to live, not homeless. Their philosophy is to live in the present, earn only one day or a week of income, and spend most of their time enjoying life. This is certainly not in line with mainstream values, but it is just a difference in life philosophy, not strictly speaking, homeless.
Because we know that the definition of homelessness is losing the ability to work, or losing the job they originally had, being unable to obtain job opportunities, not having their own house, and so on.
Great work Jerry. Where I used to live in China there was always one seemingly very dirty homeless woman who would sometimes wonder around naked! She obviously had mental issues. I asked a policeman friend about her and he said that she was well known and had been housed but would just leave and hence she seemed homeless. The police were constantly picking her up and taking her back.
I've seen a similar situation, near a school where I used to work, there was a young man chained to a tree, I spoke with the school about it, they spoke with the police and it turned out the man had mental issues and was violently aggressive, so the best solution was leave him at home, but secure him - personally, I was horrified but this was over 15 yuears ago - I've been past there many times since, in fact, I cycled past the tree only this morning and there's no evidence that he's still there - I would hope he has medication and proper treatment now.
China is still developing and mental health is one of the places where development is still behind the West - however, since I've been involved in disabled fundraising since 2005, I now know that it's 100 times better than it was when I first got involved - disabled care in China now exceeds that of my experiences in the West but was 50 years behind, just 15 years ago - I suspect Mental health is similar
I have seen several other videos about this topic recently. You are explaining and summing it up the best!
I am thankful for your videos because I think they are a great preparation before going to China (either for work or travel). If I or someone who has watched your channel comes to China, we have better tools to interpret what we see (and not fall for the lies we hear).
US social media went fishing expect someone to them some feedback where are the fish
Homelessness is everywhere. Difference is whether it's voluntary or otherwise
In China the ‘homeless’ are the migrant workers!
… the nation builders.
(Hockie).
Jerry! Jerry! Great information. I love your library.
Thank you Andrew, it's my living room as opposed to the studio
There are more and more vloggers doing "poor traveling" videos as income. They often camp in the park or under a bridge as part of the vibe. Probably those people misunderstood by foreigners as "homeless".
That's possible, when we were riding across China, we met a few people also riding across China in different ways and in different directions, for sure, some of them looked like they could use a night in a good hotel and a shower!!!
Recently, a group of young men and women who were professional internet celebrities and were sleeping outdoors were cleared out of the bridge tunnel.
Yes, the income of these people is generally not low. Their profession is to earn income by creating difficult travel conditions to shoot videos, so they live under bridges or in the wilderness, bring a bicycle and a tent, and attract viewers to earn income through this difficult way of survival.
They have their own homes and earn a considerable income through these videos or live broadcasts, but if foreigners or people who are not familiar with the situation see these people, they may think they are homeless, which may cause some misunderstandings.
There is no homeless tent city in China, that is for sure. No one can put up a tent in any city street and live there. Those who do will be arrested and given help (free bus fare, meals, etc) to return to their homes or hukou where he or she will be given government assistance if the family cannot take care of him/her. It is the duty of the local government to provide the care and help needed... getting medical care, find a job for him/her, provide a place to stay, etc. Overall, it is a good system of societal or community care. Certainly there are no millions of homeless on the streets, though an occasional one or two may be found due to a temporary situation.
I already mentioned in another commentary, that when I moved to Brazil and visited the slums, I noticed that you could not find asians there! Later, having contact with the asian district in São Paulo, I learnt that chinese family links are very strong and one would help one another at any time! It is a cultural thing, without any doubt. Jerry, I would very much appreciate you doing a video about the healthcare system in China! Or sent me the link if you already have one!
I think the best person to look at on the Healthcare system would be Lee Barratt, he went through cancer treatment here and has experienced it first hand - I personally have no experience in the system so Lee, who has made videos on it, is defintely more qualifed and more experienced that I will ever be (or at least hope to ever be!)
Thanks s a lot for the indication!
There are certainly homeless people in China but it is very rare to find them. Thirty to forty thousands would be a good estimate out of 1.4 billion people.
Jerry.... You are always very detailed in explanation. Hats off to you
5:40 This practice is also done by migrant Chinese Employers, to migrant Chinese Employees, OUTSIDE of China (in Malaysia, Philippines . . . . etc).
Simply put: Employer offers housing and food, with the assurance that the employee stays for a contracted period of time (usually 1 year).
And the employer even withhold some of the salary , to be remitted back to the employee's family at the end of the year.
In 2021 I saw what appeared to be a homeless camp for two people in Shenzhen. It was there for at least a couple weeks.
This is the only homeless camp I have seen in China in a decade here.
Beggars, however, used to be everywhere, and are still around in most cities. They do not appear to be homeless...I would have seen more camps over the years, and many are fairly well groomed.
Great explanation Jerry, wish I could explain homelessness here in Australia.
Government policy drives society - if society is crumbling, then it's because they've been let down by the people they elected to hold it together
My next vide - just released a few minutes ago is by John Lander, it's a description of the many ways the Australian government have betrayed the people
The fact is that many bloggers walked around down town andcould not find any homeless.
I do it myself all the time too - not looking but for sure, if I saw any, I would notice them
@@Andy-P I saw a big demonstration of "Yankee go home" movement in the Philippine. Some people never forget their family got killed by American while ago.
I always say that China has *_practically_* no homelessness, that China has no homelessness *_to speak of._* Of course, China has homelessness, as do all nations, but is it an issue like it is in America or Canada (where I live)? No.
It's very easy to find homeless encampments in Toronto and Vancouver...on city streets, in local parks and parking lots. It's even easier in New York City and Los Angeles and San Francisco. It is not so easy in Beijing and Shanghai. The question is why.
And, no, it's not because the Chinese government hides the homeless. It's because Chinese government and Chinese society take care of their own to the best of their ability.
American/Canadian government and society do not. This is a fact.
America has absolute freedom to be homeless in their cities.
Thank you. So well explained and very enlightening!
I live here in China and Jerry's pretty much got it right. Up here in the North you can't sleep rough in winter, but like he says, they do have 24hr McD's and KFC, and I've seen blokes sleeping rough in the 24hr section of banks where the cashpoints are.
If someone has their ID card or their phone stolen, it leaves them in a bit mess. People in that situation might have to rough it for a bit. Especially if they are in the other side of the country. China is massive. There's work around if you're willing to travel, but it's not without its risks. Couples will live apart for months or even years, while their spouse earns money. This is a big difference from the west, and is quite shocking at first.
From what Jerry said, there are temporary homeless people. In the US, you have permanent homeless people that are just down and out. I live in Los Angeles, and here there are tent cities that were up for years. A lot of these homeless people had been homeless for months if not years. They may have mental health issues, substance abuse issues, ex-felons that cannot ever find jobs, or people who are down on their luck.
At night, you can see people parking in department store parking lots sleeping in their cars. Some of these people are employed, but they cannot afford to pay for the expensive rents in the city, others might be people that lost their homes, because they couldn't pay their rents or mortgages.
There are less homeless people in Eastern Asia, because family members will take in members of their families that fall into economic distress.
USA has 650k homeless people in 2023, according to HUD. It is the richest country, 7 times of the GDP per capita of that of China. China has over 4 times of the population than that of USA. If China has less than 650k * 4 * 7 = 18.2M homeless people, it has a clearly better system/government than the USA. This fact clearly scares/angers the hell out of US politicians because it just shows how incompetent they are at their jobs. And this clearly also scares/angers the hell out of US population because it clearly demonstrates that a perceived inferior system/government is doing much better than theirs. Fact hurts ego.
homelessness used to be more visible in the 80s. It's improved significantly since then as China's economy improved and have more resources to deal with this problem. The last time I saw homeless people was in early 2000 while on a business trip to Shanghai. There were 2 guys, maybe with some sort of mental health issue sleeping on some old sofa behind my hotel. It was a shocker to me as my hometown's only 50mins north of Shanghai and I haven't seen this type of thing in my hometown. but I suppose it'd have been easier to survive as a homeless person in a big city. So if one really wants to see whether there's homelessness in China (and how bad this problem is) they should look at the big cities.
There's a dimension of "homelessness" in China that made me think about "unemployment" here in Australia. There's a base level which unemployment stats doesn't fall below. That is attributed to people who are out of a job because they are moving from one job to another. There are always such people whenever a survey is taken. This figure in percentage terms is small but numerically would be appreciable. So it would be for people moving between accommodation in China. Thanks for a real world snapshot in China.
Once again, thanks Jerry for a well thought out, well communicated answer to this issue. You’re the best!
Hi Jerry. Thanks so much for taking the time to dig into researching the issue of homelessness in China. Of course it is important that governments, any and every, should take care of their citizens. In all my travels in China over more than 30 years, I can’t say I’ve seen people wandering aimlessly with poles of bags of possessions, or sleeping in the streets, in China. In recent times. Although as you said, there must be the odd cases here and there. I have certainly seen increasing numbers of such in Japan. In Tokyo, they practically line some of the parks in downtown areas.
But honestly, why would a British journalist care so much about homelessness in China. Why not conserve her energy in raising awareness of such needs in Britain itself??
I guess the report was several years old, I think she probably had better things to do but her editor gave her a task - she wasn't a specialist and it looked very much like most of her reeaerch was through Wikipedia - which tells us a lot about the quality of her work!
For the last 10+ years, I would say mainland China has took care of this issue to the point that it is actually hard to find homeless. I am sure there are some but it's an extremely small number out of the 1.4B+ population. Hong Kong (which is part of China) would be the only exception where you can find homeless people but just not in the scale of some of the cities in the west. Hong Kong is an extreme laissez faire capitalist system and we basically fully financialize almost everything. We basically has applied the practice of speculation and supply/demand manipulation to almost everything. So in terms of accomodation we have a situation that from top to bottom everyone is doing a combination of speculation, market manipulation and extracting profit on it. Case and point, major source of government was land sale (I think they are trying to change that), major property developer has been for decades to use their financial leverage to basically land bank and keep the supply low. This is all the way down to many everyday person doing some form of real estate speculation. This result in many dramatic boom and bust cycles in HK (1983, 1997, 2003, 2023) and the social cost is accumulating.
The mainland government was allowing similar practices happening in the many tier 1 cities for a long time but I think they had second thoughts about the a few years ago and kind of pop the bubble themselves.
Fun fact: How ridiculous is speculation and extreme financialization is in HK? I was in Hong Kong during Chinese New Year so I order some new bank notes for the Lai See (red envolopes). So I expectg this newly printed banknotes should all be in sequential serial number, right? Uh ah... anything ending in 888 are gone. The bank pull them out to either sell it for more or give it to their preferred high rolling clients.
What a great fun fact, it doesn't surprise me at all - I suspect they do that on the Mainland too.
As for the HK situation, my understanding is that the government was given a mandate to fix their housing problems - I guess UK could accuse the Mainland of interferring but they'd look pretty churlish isf they did so, given the reasons China is interferring - not that looking churlish ever stopped the House of Lords doing anything!
@@jerrystakeonchina799 If the mainland bank does the same thing with the bank notes, and if they also allow for practice like in HK to remove or rename floor 4, 13, 14,24,34 and 44...etc. of a building, then you get to add an addendum of Superstitions is probably the most widespread belief here in Shenzhou (Divine Vessel, aka China). 🤣
We have been visiting different cities in China since 2008, We had not seen any homeless person.
An interesting video which brought about a thought to mind. One thing peculiar about American hubris that I've seen here is that we tend to project "America" and its values to everywhere we go. In other words, we tend to think in terms that everything is, or should be, done like "Americans do".
What I think this does is that we tend to think if something exists in another country, it must be like in our country.
This video is an example of that. Homelessness is a big issue in America. In large cities, and even in many smaller cities, it's not unusual to see a fair amount of homelessness.
So we tend to project to other countries. But what makes this worse is that we project America's homeless to other countries. By this I mean we don't take into account other country's cultures, values, government policies, etc. We simply think "we do it this way in America, so (using this video as an example) China treats their homeless the same way" so it's plausible that China has a homeless issue and they aren't dealt with effectively by the government.
In a way, I think this is a major reason why America and American media's anti-China campaign is so effective. The vast majority of Americans have little to no knowledge of China and Chinese culture so it's relatively simple for our government to mount a really effective disinformation campaign.
I could even project this to the Western world vs the Eastern world. It's been my experience that far more "Easterners" have traveled to the West than "Westerners" to the East, plus the fact that Western media dominates global media even though it represents a much smaller percentage of global population.
Yes, you're right, you've identified something called "Cultural Dimensions". The US in particular, but also most Anglo nations, are very good at projecting their own dimesions onto others and wondering why "they aren't the same as us"
I used to run business management training courses on this as my Master's Degree was focused on the differences betwen Western Management Philosophy and Chinese Workplace Psychology.
Thanks, Jerry! It's so difficult to get any info on China here in the US. We really need more Westerners like you in China, so we can get to know our future partners and leaders!
Happy to help! And thank you for the question - if you or your friends have more, please feel free to ask away
My emails are always open and the address is in the Bio - sometimes, I don't see replies or comments on YT, so for a guaranteed answer, use email
In my (Chinese) city, I walk along the river daily, and I used to see 4 males sleeping under one of the 7 bridges I pass under. In December, the weather became very cold and these people vanished. Now with the weather warming, only 1 of these people has reappeared.
I wonder where they went - probably home to the village!
I think a big difference between the US homeless and China is that so many homeless in the US are drug addicts or become drug addicts while homeless. And if they’re a drug addict, they become trapped in a hopeless cycle where any money they get becomes spent on drugs, and not a way out of homelessness. They can’t access treatment because it’s very expensive, once they run low on money, they become tempted by crime. There’s no real social safety net and society does not care enough, so they live out on the streets until they inevitably die of overdose or exposure. It’s tragic but the US’s absolute failure to effectively address drug use is a core factor in the US homelessness crisis.
Economy is meant to be the supplying of the respective area by using as less resources for as much gain as possible which sometimes (like with science) needs to become higher for future savings. But that is just a dimension of reality, if you start ignoring your neighbours as a domestic economist (economy at home), your customers as a private economist (economy at companies) or the rest of the world as an state economist, you're better of not believing you will get away unharmed. The bigger the economy is planned the better it is but all economist mustn't ignore the world beyond their own economy. Homelessness is just an indication some economist (abroad or at home) are not caring for others and it is not something a state can just cause or solve in a short time because there is always a lot more damage done which needs remedy. Homelessness and Famines in China were caused by colonizations likewise in Africa and they still claim the victims are the culprits.
Thank you for clearing that up, as you do with every topic that you bring up.
Hello from NYC. :)
You are so welcome!
There is unfortunate “homeless” in every single country. Being a highly populated country, I’m sure there is homeless in China too. However, I totally understand what you said. I grew up in Taiwan, I remember the local police will regularly visit our home and validate every single person registered to this address, police will note if any member is in military service, work out of town, etc. So China mainland is probably doing exactly the same. Hence, there can never be permanent homeless but in transit definitely exists. I did see a video on RUclips showing people sleeping in a tunnel. This whole concept probably sound “big brother” to westerners but it actually serves important protection that missing person is rare and we always know where our family members are.
Seems like you grew up under the martial law period - I wonder if they still do that!
Well said.
My pennyworth; When I was travelling around China a decade ago, the nearest I saw to 'homeless' people were obviously rural people sitting with all their belongings at the front of train stations. Mainly in Beijing.
I'm sure they had come looking for work in the cities, but I have no idea of how they go about it. Don't know if there are any agencies that help them or anything like that. Anyway, it was 10 years ago - situation may be different now.
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There are always "rough sleepers" around train stations and yes, there are plenty of agencies - also, if they take a walk around any industrial estate, they'll see plenty of signs for workers wanted - there are, despite what media might tell us, still plenty of opportunities - it may not be what they want, but if they want to work, it's often there for them - some cities more than others - I've seen this recently in Shenzhen, but in Dongguan there are a lot less opporutnities - hence the movement of people!
About 10 years ago I used to see an old lady who lived rough around Beijing station. I expect she's passed now.
But most of the people around stations are in transit.
@@jerrystakeonchina799
I know about the 'rough sleepers' round train stations - I used to be one of them!
I moved from the Black County in the UK Midlands down south the Brighton in the late 1970s, to find work. And for a time, I was homeless and sleeping rough.
But I got myself fixed up, and now I'm happily retired after running my own business for 30 years! But I'll never forget those days - I know every homeless person has their own story, and their own potential, if only a society could find a way to get them on their feet.
For example, I used to do a lot of voluntary work, but that has been banned for the unemployed now - they are supposed to be looking for work 24/7. That is just vindictive, because voluntary work is a fantastic way of finding a skill, and getting into the workforce.
Don't know if that is applicable to China though - perhaps they would regard the need for voluntary work as a failure of the system. Which it is, in a way.
@@jerrystakeonchina799
Funnily enough, when I moved to Brighton from my home in the Midlands looking for work in the late 1970s, I was a 'rough sleeper' who spent time around train stations! So I am more intimately familiar with this issue than most.
I'm very well aware that every person has their own story, and skills, just waiting for an opportunity.
I had a few months homelessness, then a few years in bedsit land, but eventually I created my own business, and I'm happily retired after running it for 30 years!
I'm old enough to remember factories with 'Vacancies' signs outside, but that was 50 years ago - you never see them in the UK now. Good luck to those in China who go into the cities looking for work! I'm sure they have more chances in China that folk in the UK do now. Everything has become so brutal here.
There are plenty of homeless in Hong Kong. They often spend the night in McDonalds in certain districts. It’s very difficult for them to find a bench to lay on. Most of them have arm rests that make laying flat impossible. Most of the sheltered areas like underpasses have hostile architecture built in now too.
It's a sad fact that money is spent making it impossible to sleep rough when less money is spent on providing places where rough sleepers could go!
To Who Let The Dog Out 10-7: China is arguably second to none in resolving the homelessness issue for its people because of its unique & comprehensive land reform done for the nation some 70 years ago. Under the reform, all lands of the country belong to the whole people & the government manages the uses of the lands on behalf of the people & to the best interests of the people. This is a major advantage that many foreign countries do not have in dealing with their homelessness problems. The price China did pay on the land reform in the 1950s was that it took away the vested interests of the rich landlords to provide the requisite lifeline to the poor & starving majority. Through execution of the land reforms, not only poor people have opportunities to live in safe homes, grassroot farmers no longer have to pay massive rents to greedy & exploitive landlords only to gain enough for living in poverty, but would have hopes & opportunities for bettering their living standards in their future.
Even if true 1 million homeless in China by percentage is 3 times less than that of the US, which is 653,000 according to HUD 2023 estimates.
The only “homeless” people in China are the elderly who may not have family around to house them or they simply prefer to be on their own. Even if there are homeless people in China - as western agencies love to claim - they are not drug addicts like many are in western countries. With a population of 1.5 billion, even if there are 3 million who are homeless, the proportion of these people against the total population pales in comparison to so-called developed countries like the US, Britain and Canada.
I hung out at a Mcdonalds in HK around midnight. There are homeless seniors sleeping there. I don't think they're technically homeless. More like shift workers or working poor.
Also, homeless in the west is often a result of addiction. I've yet to see a homeless addict in china, knowing their tough narcotics laws and social taboos.
Agreed, I think HK has a more serious issue than the Mainland, or even Macau - in my opinion, that's a British legacy. The Mainland government has kept out of it so far, as per the Agreement of the Joint Declaration but I understand they have now issued an edict to HK to fix the housing problems there
Jerry I was banned on the SCMP because I spoke the truth about HK's housing crisis. I didn't say anything too inflammatory. But I pointed out HK's priorities. Billionaire prince get the red carpet, ooh and aahs, and perks for opening a family office. While the rest of you peons can live in cage/coffin homes. Well it's the truth. Maybe they should rename it McHomeless.
@@jerrystakeonchina799 My comment got deleted again.
Thanks Jerry
thank you, found this video very informative and helpful.
中山? My grandpa birthplace before he came to Malaysia. Anyway, there are homeless people in every country. Better question maybe can an able person afford a place to live if he/she work at minimum wage.
Yes, I live in Zhongshan, in guangdong, your Grandpa's birthplace.
And yes, every person who gets a job also gets, as part of the package, an allowance for home ownership, first home owners also get tax breaks and mortgage interest relief on income tax - home ownership in China is over 90% and unencumbered home ownership is well over 70% - much better than the developed world
Search the beggars village in Gansu province, where the villagers use money that they begged from big cities and built mansions for their homes, they are richer than u can imagine
Homelessness is everywhere in the world. It happens in every political system. Be it communist, socialist or capitalist. However it depends on the able leader who cares and takes prompt action to help.
You are right, sir.
With a population of over 1.4b, which is 4.17 time that of the USA, there are bound to be many poor & less fortunate people who finds it difficult to make ends meet.
Another vlogger, Gweilo 60, highlighted one of the places where some Chinese people are taking temporary shelter, but he has not investigated why these people are staying in that place.
ruclips.net/video/0wU7K4OopNE/видео.html
Thanks William, I watched the Gweilo video, it was good - he and I pretty much agree on everything
As you said, a person can have a residential address, live elsewhere or sleep in a restaurant as you saw, and still have a bank account, so the fact they have a bank account does not necessarily mean they're not homeless. If you can't afford a stable place to lay your head, working or not, you're homeless. That includes couch-surfing, which is how so many college students are surviving these days. Homelessness was once a sign of national economic depression, now it's treated like a personal problem, only.
The western labor force eventually organized against the Company Town because companies kept workers/residents in debt peonage forever and provided little to no healthcare or safety net. What are workers' rights like there? Can a company make you work 16 hrs/day for that bed in a dorm that might be the only alternative to homelessness if they want to earn and send money home? Is the food provided good quality or designated by income? I expect China realizes it needs a happy healthy workforce to sustain its economic growth.
If people are too mentally ill to hold a job or pay bills despite the safety net, does China just let them wander with their worldly goods until they succumb to illness? Does the govt try to force relatives to take them in? Does it "re-educate" them, or their relatives if they refuse to take them in? Every society has people dealing with addictions, how does China handle it? Does China have mental hospitals where some people never leave except in a casket? I've seen Housing First programs help people overcome addictions but sometimes the former addicts don't get well enough to go back to work, so do those just get put on the disability rolls? Here in the US, the mentally ill are supposed to find their way thru meager social services to prove their eligibility for disability in a system that automatically rejects claims the first time they're submitted, more likely accepted on appeals. That perseverance can't generally be expected from the homeless mentally ill.
There are now nursing homes in China to care for the elderly who lose their faculties, it is not always left up to the descendants to care for them, but it appears China has expertise and premier services in gerontology and keeps their elders healthier much, much longer. If younger people can't find work or won't work, and they take advantage of their elders, who helps the elders and where do the younger relatives get sent?
I'm not trying for a "gotcha", I'm trying to figure out how the US could do better. I know for a fact that growing up I saw a sum total of two obviously homeless people in 22 years in NYC's five burroughs with 10 million people. Now there are homeless people in every park even in this affluent community of less than 20,000 where you can barely buy a shack for less than a million bucks.
What did we have when I was growing up? Glad you asked! We had a system where homes were for living, not house-flipping, and apartment buildings and houses were for small landlords willing to take risks for profit, not for gamblers in Wall St.
We earned enough to pay for a roof over our heads, no matter what. We had a welfare system where those who could not go thru the process to get certified "disabled" still got enough money from the state to rent a cheap place with at the very least shared kitchens and bathrooms. I even remember apartments in NY's lower east side that had bathtubs in the kitchen. Now we have more bureaucratic requirements, less available housing, less services, CEOs "earning" thousands of times what their workers get paid and paying almost no taxes so long as they can afford the best accountants and lawyers.
China seems very aware of those threats to the social fabric, so I wonder about the details and if they're transferable. Since we now have an entire media system telling us that any government assistance to solve social issues is a communist threat, I expect we'll ignore the lessons we could learn from China and from our own once more civilized history. Go figure. We were more civilized when we succeeded in defeating communism here with more socialist, humanitarian policies and funding.
If you think you've defeated communism, I think you're delusional, sorry to say that but China is just about to show you how socialism works so much better than your version.
Every question you've asked me can be answered in a positive way - workers rights are very strong, no the company cannot make anyone work longer than 8 hours in a day without paying overtime and not more than 48 hours in a week legally, although there are of course some that do, if they are reported to the government, the company will suffer consequences - China is the very opposite of the USA - everything you know about it, is wrong.
Homelessness in the USA is an increasing problem, as are drugs, gun deaths, violent crime and poverty - as is your health system and your educational system - your media feeds you lies on a daily basis and you repeat those lies as truths.
I'm really sorry to tell you, you are 100% misled about everything you think you know about China and your questions here demonstrate that - keep watching my videos, read Chinese media, its available online in English and you will never find a lie in it - admittedly, they won't always tell the entire story, but they will never lie to you. Try it - the globsal Times, China Daily, People's Daily, CGTN all have English language online and you will learn the truth
The Chinese population is sometimes too pragmatic. Rather be homeless for a little bit until finding a roommate to share a studio apartment. I've heard many stories like this in Shenzhen. 2 girls sharing a studio apartment, each paying RMB 800 per month, but making about rmb7000 each. They end up saving up to RMB 50,000 in a year in hopes to get married and have a good financial start to their marriage life.
I know, it's crazy, one friend of mine who owns a company here in Zhongshan once told me his staff "live on vapours". They seem to work for a few months and have enough saved for a deposit on an apartment or buy a car - how is it even possible he asks!
During the past 75 years of PRC, homelessness has never been an obvious problem like in democratic India. There was nothing in China remotely resembles the slums in democratic India and Phillipines. There has never been any slum in PRC like those in India and Philippines.
Homelessness is a cultural phenomenon, am from tanzania it's a poor country but you rarely see homeless people.
The western definition, at least for those vloggers, of homelessness is probably people sleeping on the street. As you mentioned in the video, pretty much every Chinese could have a home to go back to. It's up to individuals whether to live there. I've watched Chinese vlogger video showing people sleeping outside a Shenzhen train station. They are either unemployed waiting for an offer, or self-employed who didn't want to spend on accommodations. Not everyone wants hand out from the government. Handing out money doesn't solve any problem neither. Foreigners who don't understand Chinese system and culture will get things wrong most of the time. A million+ homeless people? I might as well belief in Santa climbing down the chimney.
I really can’t help feeling that those who ask about homelessness in China again and again just can’t accept that people are living much better lives in China. In their small and petty minds, China can’t ever possibly be better than their countries, and since their countries have worsening homelessness problem, then China must have multitudes of homeless people. How pathetic!
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They aren't allowed to know Ferryrustandi, their media deliberately misinforms them so they don't stat looking too closely
@@jerrystakeonchina799👍
1 million, 3 millions, whatever is still a very small number out of 1.4 billion people.
Thank you for this fascinating insight.
I've also heard that the government took all the homeless off the streets a while ago and housed them in apartments. Not sure how much of this is true.
There were people sleeping rough in Shanghai during a particularly cold spell a couple of years ago and the police did "sweep them up" and house them until the weather improved
If you want truth about what's happening in china, the best places to go are the Chinese media and Chinese government official releases, not Western media!
They send them to their hometowns where they are taken cared of.
Would there be a significant number of refugees from North Korea or Myanmar for example, who might be homeless in China? Or is that usually taken care of quickly by the government?
No, there are not. Each of those countries, near the border has ethnic minorities, who are Chinese but they are not refugees - I think in both cases, the border controls are quite strong and they aren't allowed to cross - by the same token, in each of those countries, there are Chinese people who live there with those nationalities - a throwback to the days of less restrictions on the borders.
The problems in both countries that you might read about in Western media are not the same as the problems we read about in Chinese media - I haven't been to the border with either but I know plenty of people who have, there are not floods of people attempting to cross, there never have been.
Sleeping on the streets is homeless people. They have different reasons why they don't want to sleep inside on a bed.
Well said, Jerry
Homeless encampments exist in every nation throughout time, and it's one of those things at least modern governments are obliged to solve. Whether the million homeless cited by this Jenny person takes into account of the Hukou system, or the complexity of the individual, or the count is real at all, is irrelevant...it's not her country, why the hell should anyone in the West care? I mean, if it's true, is the US going to send aid to help the homeless in China? If not, and China has ZERO homeless, it still makes to difference to all the encampments plaguing the cities even countries across the US.
When it comes to the reasons why there are so few homeless people in China, it is impossible not to mention China's land policy. At a time when 95% of the people were farmers, it was achieved that everyone had land to farm. In the earliest land policy, individual peasants owned land outright and could trade it freely. Thus there was a wave of land annexation in China in the early years of the founding of the PRC. The Chinese are historically oriented and know what evils land annexation can bring. Then the land policy was changed, all the land was nationalized, and the rural land was owned by the rural collective. jerry Talking about the hukou, if your hukou moves out of the countryside to the city, then the land under your name will be returned to the village collective and redistributed. But the house built on the land is completely personal property, can be inherited, can be bought and sold, no property tax, no inheritance tax. The Chinese people emphasize family harmony, and basically you can say that all Chinese people have an ancestral house in the countryside, so that when you lose everything, there is always a place for you to stay.
Good point and thank you for adding it
Can confirm there ARE homeless people in China but depending on when and where you are. For instance, I've seen no homeless in Shanghai (top tier city) for the entire 4 years I lived there from 2020 to 2024, but saw 3 homeless people in Guilin (lower tier city) during a weekend I spent there in 2023. Also I grew up in Beijing before 2008 and there were a lot of homeless people back then but none right now. In conclusion, I won't call those sources incorrect but people do need to pay attention to the time and location - rather than treating China a homogenous place.
You're right but what's the definition of homeless? Is it a street dweller, no matter the reason, or is it a persn who has been forced onto the street by circumstances - if it's the former, then China has many, if it's the latter, China has very few.
Poverty is the usual reason, and not one person is "forced" through poverty onto the streets in China, some people with mental health issues are and that's something that needs addressing
@@jerrystakeonchina799 I mean homeless in the strict sense - beggars who have no clean cloths and having not taken a haircut for years.
When you said poverty has been eradicated i knew you were 1000% truth telling as someone living in china no one is poor since it has been eradicated.
There is definitely no slowdown in the economy just many empty ghost towns, most western companies has withdrawn. There are so many jobs.
You must travel everywhere in china just because you didnt see homelessness it means its verified. Getting an address is impossible ppl dont have a way of getting one.
Anyone can get an address, there are a glut of empty homes on the market, some for rental and some for sale - I'm not sure what you mean by people can't get an address, perhaps you mean they can't easily transfer their hukou?
Smart fellows deserve books behind 'em - So they can look smart~! 👍
Yes we do :-))
Even assuming the 1-3 million figures is real, that is still a relatively small number compare the overall population size. Homelessness in Asian countries does exist, just not in the same scale that most people in the west are accustom to. Even in Scandinavian countries, is is also somewhat less than say in the UK or the US. Ultimately, I think one should take a look to see if the situation has improved over time and if the govt is doing anything about it. One tend to find more people wondering around with bundle of their processions just likewhat you described in about 12-15 years ago. These days it is just not as common to see them, at least no at the same numbers of what it used to. What is also less common in major Chinese cities is unlicensed petty traders has also been somewhat absence compare to other major Asian cities. The one thing I also find completely disappeared these days are random people who come to you asking for money with myriad of excuses such as they are trapped in the city with no money and asked for some money to get a bus ticket home. Beggars (not sure if this is the right word of it) are all but gone these days, the last time I encountered one was in 2010 in Yiwu, even then it is the only example I can think of in the last 15 years.
Agreed, but I think we can all agree that the number is not real, especially the 13 year old 3 million figure
I was from China over 50 years ago and now live in Canada. I travelled to China almost every year. I did see beggars in every cities I visited in China maybe 30 years ago. China has changed a lot in a good way in last 30 years. I can't remember when was the last time I saw a beggar or homeless anywhere in China. On the other hand, number of homeless is just keep on rising here in Vancouver, Canada.
Thanks for sharing that Danny, you're right, there are a lot less, but there are still beggars near many temples
Chinese homeless are different from the west or other places. chinese homeless are normally they move to the city or to a new place, they have no home yet, they stay with their extended family or rent cheap runday places. All you will see a few people do camps on subway cross, these are people from the countryside come to town looking for work and perhaps they don't want to burn up all their money. in china normal people get a job with rooms as part of the jobs. in the uk, people are homeless, they have difficulty and extreme poverty and mental problems, often they are not clear, drugs abuse and even do illegal means to get money. if you walk pass a chinese homeless, all you see them don't make contact with you or want to beg money from you. i have visited china for 30 years, i rare see any homeless people. . but homeless are in every country, for chinese homeless mean refugees.
The difference is China is pro-active. In the US, you need a physical address to apply for any benefit. And if you don't apply, they don't care at all. Everything in the west is bureaucracy. You can't get anything unless you have proper paperwork. I am sure China is probably similar but they may actually have police or other people who would involve in helping people who can't help themselves. Most of these so called homeless people in China seems to be transitional workers. In the west, these homeless people like where they are. They don't pay rent. They can steal water and electricity. And most of them are homeless in nice areas with good weather. They can go into to harass businesses to get free food. In some sense, it is understandable. Who can afford $3000 rent and have to pay $20 lunch.
That was true years ago (I don’t know how the situation is nowadays）that majority of the employers will provide housing for the employees in China and some Asia countries. This is especially true for workers in large factories. When I had a restaurant in the US, the Chinese or some other Asian whom I interviewed, frequently asked me if housing is provided. Personally I find it’s hard to get short term rentals in the USA, The process of renting a house/ apt nowadays is time consuming, more requirements and higher standards. I do understand the necessity for it. I simply stating what I have observed.
It's true, most, if not all factories would provide accommodation - I had a coffee shop and needed to provide a three bedroom apartment for my four staff - the two youngest lads shared a room - they thought it was fine because in factories there will be 6 or 8 to a room
Because I am Lizzy channel also has a video on this topic
I don't know who that is, but I hope the channel is realistic and the information is genuine, there are a few people who are neither
@@jerrystakeonchina799the channel is genuine and realistic.
Please watch her channel about China. She is a S African who has lived/worked in China for about 5 years now. Her mother supposedly uprooted herself from S Africa to live in China.
Superb technical skills.
Thanks
First of all, the number of homeless people in the U.S. vs China are day and night. Given China has 1.4B people. 1 million ( if is true) is still low. Besides, homeless people in China don't do drugs and they don't commit crimes like the Americans.
I live in China over 15 years. I haven't seen a single homeless.. Maybe I did not look carefully. But I did not see any homeless here.
Jerry would you mind to tell us about pensioners living in China and what is it like to have benefits there and does it effect foreign pensioners by living in China?
Government pensions from Australia are not paid in China, I have a friend here who worked all his life in Australia and now lives on a superannuation, he's 80. But Australia will not pay him his pension - it's a matter that should be taken to court to resolve but he says it's not worth it.
I receive a British police pension here without a problem and I have superannuation in Australia that I don't yet claim but can, it's my money they will pay it
As for Chinese people, it's getting better, I made a video a few weeks ago about getting old in China: ruclips.net/video/Hm1Ph_JHUBk/видео.html
Can you also tell us about disability pensioners too?
@@jerrystakeonchina799and thank you about the video link
When I worked in Bangalore India many of my Indian coworkers lived in encampments around the city to save on expenses.
I think in India, it's much more common than here in China
At least being homeless in china is much better & safer than in other countries
It wold be if they were homeless, but they aren't - they do however feel safer when they choose to sleep rough
@@jerrystakeonchina799 Okay that is nice to know
Well said. I'm thinking China has been doing quite well in the last couple of decades. And they have certainly helped their own citizens with plenty of new projects. Also making life better for some African countries. I understand that it is quid pro quo, but it is more than any other countries are doing.
An interesting point that is NEVER mentioned in any western media I've seen is that China doesn't always help African countries out of "quid pro quo" - even when China was impoverished and had virtually no foreign trade, Mao insisted on supporting several African countries that were in a worse conditions - I'll make a video of this in the coming weeks