Is China’s social contract under pressure?

中国的社会契约是否面临压力?

Newshour

2025-10-22

47 分钟
PDF

单集简介 ...

China's ruling Communist party is meeting to discuss the country's economic plans, at a time of international uncertainty. The party has a grand bargain with its citizens — people will accept one party rule and restrictions on freedoms in exchange for a better life, but, is that bargain no longer so secure? Also in the programme: an international force has seized illegal drugs worth an estimated billion dollars in the Arabian Sea, is the Gulf region becoming a major market? And the EU’s top human right prize goes to two imprisoned journalists. (Image: Delegates in the Great Hall of the People. Credit: Reuters)
更多

单集文稿 ...

  • Hello and welcome to News Hour from the BBC World Service.

  • We're coming to you live from London.

  • I'm James Menendez.

  • President Trump is expected to head to Asia at the end of this week,

  • a trip during which he may meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

  • The stability of the global economy is likely to be at the top of the agenda, but the president,

  • striking an upbeat tone, saying he thinks he'll do a, quote, fantastic trade deal with China.

  • Beijing certainly has good reason to hope for an end to their trade dispute.

  • It's put a lot of pressure on a Chinese economy that was already under strain after more than 30 years of breakneck growth that lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty.

  • The slowdowns led to falling house prices,

  • job insecurity and large numbers of young people simply without a job.

  • The Chinese Communist Party has a grand bargain with its citizens,

  • an unwritten social contract, if you like.

  • People would accept one party rule and restrictions on freedoms in exchange for a better life.

  • But what happens when that better life is no longer guaranteed?

  • Our China correspondent Laura Bicker has been finding out.

  • So the stairs are completely flooded.

  • Watch the wire.

  • Peng Zhou is leading me through the flooded parking garage of his unfinished home.

  • This construction worker was once living the dream sold to him by his leaders.