China's economic slowdown leaves millions of jobs at stake

BEIJING -- On Wall Street, stocks closed lower -- the Dow lost 109 points -- in part because of the economic slowdown in China.

The communist government there is struggling to manage enormous debts, shaky stock markets and a growing perception that it may not be equal to the task.

At a roadside Beijing job-fair, those searching for work told CBS News it's getting tougher.

"Yes, I can feel the pressure," Niu Sisi told CBS News. "The economy is slowing and industries are facing lots of changes."

Peking University finance professor Michael Pettis said China faces a debt crisis after borrowing tens of trillions of dollars for iffy investments, in areas like real estate and shipping.

"They've spent massive amounts of money building unnecessary things," he said. "Beijing has never gotten its arms around the problem of debt, until it does, things will continue to get worse."

Now, China is trying to re-balance its economy -- leading to massive layoffs in government owned industries.

But, amid the backdrop of labor protests, state media has run a slew of glowing "good-news" stories.

President Xi Jinping visited top state media outlets in February -- urging the press to pledge loyalty to the Communist Party. It's an effort to control the story and project stability.

"The fear is that it's still possible for Beijing to mismanage the process and for it to be much more disruptive than expected," said Pettis.

China's government has tried to convince the world that its economy is not in peril, but it's still not clear if that's just wishful thinking.

Doane, Seth. "China's economic slowdown leaves millions of lives at steak." Feb 8, 2016. CBS News. Feb 8, 2016.  

Many Chinese are starting to lose jobs due to the economic slowdown, which is causing a lot of lives to be at risk. China is greatly in debt and in order to try and settle that, the government has decided to lay people off of the jobs at industries and many more. I was really surprised by this article, because I personally always thought that since China produces the most products in the world, they would be the last for their economy to crash. The author of the article seemed biased against China, because at the end he states that China's claims of not having a peril economy seems like just wishful thinking. I think the Chinese government should get more people into the labor field rather than kick them out, and figure out a way to be as productive as possible in order to pay off the debt.