A Communist Party document revealed recently (April 11) that China's Communist Youth League (CYL) has promised to despatch more than 10 million students to 'rural zones' by 2022 in order to 'increase their skills, spread civilisation and promote science and technology'. The CYL document quoted in the official Global Times daily (April 11) said the aim is to bring to the rural areas the talents of those who would otherwise be attracted to life in the big cities.  It said students will be called upon to live in the countryside during their summer holidays, although the CYL did not say how young people would be persuaded to volunteer.

(Comment: Apart from raising fears of a Mao-type movement which had disastrous consequences --  President Xi Jinping, known for his nostalgia for the Mao era, himself spent seven years in a village in the poor northern province of Shaanxi from the age of 16 -- this will cause massive disruption to local life and impose an immense burden on localities least-equipped to deal with this sudden influx of humanity.  Competent analysts have estimated that the cost of such a movement will be huge and exceed US$ 1 billion a year!)