I’ve seen estimates of China’s manufacturing job losses as high as 20 million over the past decade. Problem is, we can’t believe any of the economic numbers coming out of China.
I think we can believe some of social phenomena emerging out of all this - mobs of thousands sacking police stations and trashing PLA schools - all this in a police state where you can be taken away in the middle of the night for thought crimes (let alone demonstrations) and literally disappear. This is a society under tremendous stress, and cracks are appearing that may cause the collapse of whole shooting match.