China: Tiananmen protests a distant memory for youth

While two decades ago, China's youth were at the forefront of a movement to bring democracy to the world's most populous nation in demonstrations bloodily put down around Beijing's central Tiananmen Square, today's students are more pro-government, more suspicious of the West and genuinely proud of China's achievements, such as the Beijing Olympics, making a repeat of 4 June 1989 unlikely, writes Ben Blanchard for Reuters.

But the potential for unrest among a disaffected youth has not gone away, thanks to the global economic crisis. More than six million university students will try to enter China's workforce this year. Up to a quarter could have difficulty finding jobs, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said in December, as the economy slows.

The Yangtse Evening Post reported earlier this month that in the relatively affluent eastern province of Jiangsu, 46 university graduates had applied for jobs as public toilet attendants, such was the state of the labour market.
Full report on the Reuters site