In recent years, as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) advances its agenda to preserve its rule, it has altered the economic and social structures established during China’s reform and opening-up era.
An increasing number of Chinese people feel that the dream of achieving success through hard work is becoming harder to realize. The social class structure in China has solidified, leaving children from lower-income families with even fewer opportunities for upward mobility. Sociological studies confirm this trend, which shows that intergenerational occupational mobility in China has steadily declined since 2010.
Zhang Yu, who arrived in the United States this past May, was once a nurse at a top-tier hospital in Wuhan, Hubei Province. She has experienced this firsthand. Zhang Yu told The Epoch Times that China is now an era where success depends on one’s father. Without a well-connected father, securing a good job is impossible.
The educational privilege scam
Zhang Yu said: “I have a friend in sports who said his son will definitely get into a top-tier 985 university no matter his grades,” she explained. Her friend claimed that by obtaining a national “first/second class athlete” certificate domestically, his son could gain admission to a prestigious university with just 200-300 points on the college entrance exam.
Suppose a father coaches a provincial soccer or basketball team. In that case, he can arrange for his son to participate in a single match, then secure a national first- or second-class athlete certificate — that’s all it takes. According to Zhang Yu: “While ordinary kids burn the midnight oil studying, his son plays all day. In the end, he might score just 100 or 200 points on the exam, yet still get into a prestigious university.”
Official crackdowns reveal this kind of corruption: in 2021, the Ministry of Education publicly denounced instances of large-scale cheating in which officials used their positions to falsify sports credentials for privileged students. Zhang Yu pointed out that while the government constantly proclaims fairness and justice, education — which affects every individual and is the foundation of the nation — falls short of even fundamental fairness. How can we then expect fairness and justice at the legal level?
Mechanisms of inherited success
Zhang Yu described how good jobs and positions in China today spread through mechanisms resembling maternal transmission (children enter their parents’ industry); bloodline transmission (relatives get good jobs); and sexual transmission (an individual sleeps with a high-ranking official and gets promoted). “I’ve seen this happen around me, which is why I speak out.” Zhang Yu pointed out that a political and social system propagated this way is fundamentally rotten to the core. Competent individuals find no place for themselves. They remain jobless and income-less, while those with privileged parents or who sleep with leaders surpass them.
The widening income gap is reflected in China’s high Gini coefficient. A Gini coefficient above 40 is considered high; in 2021, China was at 46.6, which contributed to widespread disillusionment expressed in the “lying flat” (tǎng píng) social movement, in which youth reject the struggle for unattainable success. Zhang Yu lamented that contemporary China is a society of privilege. Without it, you become an ant easily crushed by others. With privilege, your treatment differs entirely.
The institutional cost of Guanxi (social connections)
“When our hospital is crowded, patients fill every corridor, yet one ward remains empty — reserved exclusively for officials, relatives of Health Commission staff, or hospital directors.” She explained that ordinary people might sleep in the hallway for 10 to 20 days from admission to discharge. Still, those with connections could move into a private room as soon as their family arrived, often getting a single room to themselves.
This pervasive disparity is a classic manifestation of Guanxi (关系), where personal, influential networks allow privileged individuals to bypass public queues and regulations. “And don’t even mention the fees. Ordinary patients are charged for every item according to regulations, but those with connections don’t pay anything if they can avoid it. That’s just how it is!”
These accounts highlight how Guanxi creates a two-tiered system in which institutional resources — from educational access to critical health care — are allocated not based on need or merit, but on political and familial power.
Translated by Audrey Wang and edited by Helen London
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