The death of a 33-year-old woman alone in a rented apartment after repeated rejections from the civil service recruitment program has sent shockwaves through Chinese social media.
The woman from the northwestern province of Ningxia died in an apartment she rented outside the northern city of Xi'an, according to WeChat user @12Oaks, who published their account to the WeChat account @Zhenguan on Aug. 16.
"I have been wanting to write about this, but I feel so heavy-hearted that I don't know where to begin," the user wrote. "I got a phone call in early June that threw me into an emotional black hole for a long time."
"My tenant died in my apartment, and their body was so badly decomposed that it made facial recognition difficult," they said. "There are so many deep-rooted points of pain in Chinese society and in rural China that are difficult to talk about."
According to the post, the family had reported their daughter missing a week before the June phone call after losing contact with her on April 20, when she asked her family for help making rent that month.
But when her mother sent her some money, the daughter blocked her entire family and went incommunicado, according to @10oaks. One report quoted police as saying that she had been spending around 5 yuan (US$0.70) a day in the run-up to her death.
While the cause of the woman's death wasn't reported, many on social media seemed to believe she had starved to death, too ashamed to ask her family for further help.
According to multiple media reports following up on the story, the woman had become estranged from her family after a conversation about her repeated attempts to enter the civil service.
Despite scoring highly in the written test and having graduated from a prestigious university in Beijing, the woman had been repeatedly rejected at the interview stage, the reports said.
The woman's father told the landlord that the rejections were likely because his daughter hailed from a poor, rural family with no political connections, they said.
Furious reaction
The claims, which were confirmed by further reports but later deleted, prompted a slew of angry comments on social media about the ruling Chinese Communist Party's claim to have eradicated extreme poverty under Xi Jinping.
As many people in China struggle to find work amid the post-lockdown economic downturn, the case has shone a horrific spotlight on widespread unemployment among even highly qualified young people.
In a harsh economic climate, China's young people have coined the terms " political depression" and " lying flat" to refer to their sense of hopelessness, and who are increasingly rejecting traditional milestones like finding a job, marriage and children.
One comment under a report by the X citizen media account @xinwendiaocha, or "news investigation," read: "Prosperity under Xi Jinping is a big joke and a lie."
"Heartbroken after reading this," said another. "She must have been extremely desperate."
Some, not unlike a People's Daily article that prompted widespread ire in March 2023, accused the woman of being too "picky" about her career prospects.
Zhenguan and Phoenix news services later followed up with statements confirming that the story was true, but declined to make any evidence public due to the social media furor around the report.
Zhenguan later deleted the original post about the woman's death, "to show respect to the deceased, protect the post's author and avoid distorted interpretations and excessive speculation."
Social media comments appeared to assume that the account had deleted the article due to official pressure.
"Even if you kill all the roosters, the day still dawns," commented one.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie.