A New Year Reflection of China’s Ordinary Middle Class

Let’s also reflect on my 2024.

An individual is quite insignificant and relies on a team to combat and transform nature, satisfying needs for housing, clean water, personal safety, food, warm clothing, and medicine. Thus, forming a team to improve living standards is essential, which is why families, tribes, clans, companies, nations, religions, and countries are formed.

Why do men always care about politics, military, and international situations? From self-media, programmers to retirees, workers eating at roadside stalls, and taxi drivers all talk about Trump, the Russia-Ukraine war, the hegemony of the US dollar, and trade wars, because it’s naturally related to personal interests.

So, how is the fate of the nation interlinked with individual destiny?

In early December 2024, we heard of the passing of Auntie Qiong Yao, a memory that brought to mind some of her autobiographies I read in 2024. In one of the books, it was mentioned how her mother was nearly taken away and raped by Japanese soldiers in front of the family.

During the Battle of Hengyang from June to August 1944, Qiong Yao was just a six-year-old girl, and she was at Hengyang with her parents, two younger brothers (three children in total), and grandpa—a family of six.

The autobiography “My Story” by Qiong Yao consists of three parts, with the first part discussing life on the mainland, focusing mostly on the wartime experiences due to the hardships faced then.

1: When the war was nearing, Qiong Yao was awakened by her mother in the middle of the night as the family fled to the mountains in Hengyang. “That night, I slept soundly, but in the middle of the night, my mother anxiously shook me awake. As I opened my eyes, I saw my father frantically dressing my younger brother Kirin, as everyone hustled around the house. I got out of bed in a daze. Then, I heard gunfire, sporadic and terrifying. I ran to the window, shocked by the sight of flames everywhere in the farm. The mix of human voices, gunfire, chasing sounds, and the cries of chickens and dogs were overwhelming. Not yet fully awake, I was completely terrified. My parents and grandfather hurriedly grabbed us three children, whispering urgently, ‘Hush! Make no sound. We need to hide in the mountains!’”

2: After hiding in the valleys for several days without food, Qiong Yao’s family of six had only four bowls of plain rice, and they were unfortunately discovered by a group of Japanese soldiers. In front of Qiong Yao’s father, grandfather, and the three children, a Japanese soldier attempted to take Qiong Yao’s mother by force. Qiong Yao’s father and grandfather tried to resist but were beaten, and the three children cried desperately, clinging to their mother. Fortunately, a bespectacled Japanese officer seemed to show mercy and stopped the soldier.

“On the first day, our entire family only had two bowls of white rice (given by grandfather’s servant Huang Caiyu), and on the second day, we still had only two bowls of white rice. On the third day, the servant didn’t appear, and we were starving, Kirin and my little brother started crying again.”

“Suddenly, my mother’s face stiffened, and we instinctively looked up, finding that a row of Japanese soldiers stood at the valley’s edge, looking down at us, their long guns pointed directly at us.”

“The burly Japanese, his shirt open, a single button undone on his uniform, held a big wooden stick in one hand, and with a sinister and fierce expression, he grabbed my mother’s wrist and, in broken Chinese, said, ‘Come with me!’ Dragging her outside the valley forcefully. My always gentle father erupted with fury, rushing to embrace my mother, yelling at the Japanese soldier, ‘Let go! You beast! Let go!’ Everything happened so fast, I saw the Japanese soldier raise the wooden stick and strike father around the waist; father, unable to steady himself on the sloped valley floor, rolled all the way down the slope. Grandfather, unable to bear it, rushed forward, only to be struck by the soldier and knocked down the slope, as he continued dragging mother out of the valley. Mother clutched the grassy walls of the valley, crying aloud on the ground. Watching father and grandfather get beaten, and knowing mother was about to be taken, fear and helplessness overwhelmed me. I clung to mother’s clothes, crying loudly.

During this time, Kirin and my little brother rushed over, hugging mother’s legs and crying loudly—our cries shook the earth as we screamed, ‘Mother, don’t go! Mother, don’t go!’” “Just then, the bespectacled Japanese officer seemed to soften, suddenly shouting in Japanese, stopping the burly soldier immediately.”

3: After the incident with the Japanese soldier nearly taking away their mother, Qiong Yao’s family didn’t dare to stay any longer and moved on to hide with an uncle’s family in the countryside at a farmer’s house. This house had an old farmer couple. Unfortunately, this place was also discovered by Japanese soldiers. The uncle’s family had a one-year-old baby. When Japanese soldiers broke into the farmhouse, Qiong Yao’s six-member family and the uncle’s three-member family, nine in total, hid in the woodshed, warned by the farmer not to make any noise.

The cries outside by the Japanese soldiers were heard clearly, yet at this time, the uncle’s one-year-old son began to cry. The aunt quickly tried to breastfeed him, but the baby continued to cry loudly, refusing milk. The aunt attempted to cover his mouth with a hand, but the aunt exclaimed, grabbing her son, ‘Kill me first if you want to kill him.’ At this moment, miraculously, the child stopped crying, restoring silence to the woodshed. A Japanese soldier who had already reached the woodshed door didn’t enter to search, sparing everyone’s lives.

“When the uncle realized the crisis was over, he immediately embraced the aunt, kissing her desperately and also hugged the son who nearly died, kissing him all over his head and face amid tears.” Yet the family’s hardships did not end here; they decided to flee a thousand kilometers to Sichuan, which took them a year, arriving in Chongqing only after the victory of the war.

Even eighty years later in 2024, the ties between national fate and individual destiny remain unbroken. Let me narrate a few things, whatever comes to mind, akin to a memoir.

1: Reducing debt – in 2024, I paid off 15% of the housing loan principal

The biggest action I took in 2024 was repaying approximately 15% of the housing loan principal. I had multiple properties in Shenzhen, and at the beginning of 2024, faced two paths:

One path was to sell a smaller rented property and switch to a larger one; the other path was to avoid fuss and repay some loan principal to reduce debt.

Internally, I favored the first path,

As house prices decreased, the drop in larger properties was greater than in smaller ones. If smaller properties depreciated by 1 million compared to the first half of 2023, larger properties would have depreciated by 2 million, 3 million, or even more.

Thus, selling a smaller property and buying a larger one seemed lucrative despite losing money on the smaller property, making it very worthwhile overall.

I agreed with Samsung’s counter-cyclical investment theory of that year and Warren Buffet’s be greedy when others are fearful theory.

A property with larger space, better location, apartment type, and parking spaces could potentially double the rent or more. During a market downturn, even though I couldn’t sell the smaller property at a good price, I held strong negotiating power when buying a better property.

Eventually, I opted for the second path: not swapping properties but repaying 15% of the housing loan principal. The reason was simple: after checking some desired properties, realizing they were too expensive, and calculating that swapping would elevate the total loan by over 100%, greatly impacting lifestyle quality, I paused.

My expectations for desired properties weren’t high. With education allocated, I didn’t require academic resources for newly bought properties; my requirement was plentiful parking, always having an empty space at all times. Upon review, I found less than 30% (even less than 20%) of neighborhoods in Shenzhen’s richest district, Nanshan, had ample parking space.
Touring many famous real estates, all parking underground and on the ground was full, even for properties only around a decade old. It showed that initial planning didn’t anticipate such rapid automotive growth.

Some properties for sale had exclusive parking, but seeing the neighborhood’s inadequate parking, finding cars often blocking fixed spots, was unacceptable.

However, neighborhoods with ample parking choice were limited—they were either distant from my current residence or apartments or new properties mostly being luxury residences with significantly higher prices. Spending more just for parking seemed unnecessary.

If most neighborhoods had adequate parking spaces, giving me ample choice, I might have swapped properties in 2024.
Therefore, boosting market demands should consider residential spatial potential; I intend to exclude properties with a parking-to-household ratio below 1.2:1. Whereas, realistically, the ratio in most Shenzhen neighborhoods falls below this.

So, asking all new neighborhoods to have a minimum 1.2 ratio, won’t that do the trick?

Then, why choose to repay the mortgage early? For the same reason as others – declining house prices caused a drop in total family assets. Yet early 2024 mortgage interest hadn’t decreased—it remained above 4.5%, and although assets depreciated, the capital outflow didn’t lessen, necessitating debt reduction to cut interest expenses.

Although three mortgage interest rate reductions occurred throughout 2024, dropping it to the 3s range by year-end, once the habit of early repayment started, it became addicting. Hence, continuing the trend resulted in repaying 15% of the principal in a year.

Thinking carefully as 2025 arrived, given the substantial interest rate drop, I don’t plan to repay as many mortgages in 2025, reducing the repayment intensity to potentially no more than 10%.

Regarding a property swap, I’ll continue inspecting into 2025, checking not just the properties themselves but also the neighborhood and surroundings. Seeing more can only be beneficial.

Overall, residential planning and interest rate fluctuations greatly influenced my individual decisions and actions.

2: Stock Market and Consumption

In terms of the stock market, due to savings directed toward early loan repayments, I hardly paid attention to the stock market in 2024. The companies I adored, like Beijing Navarra and Scallops, surpassed valuations of 200 billion yuan, yet their narratives didn’t fascinate me as much as before; my future plans involve gradually increasing dividend stock proportions.

The reasoning is simple – what holds value over extended periods and can still generate worth afterward?

Work doesn’t count, nor does cash, as societal changes easily devalue it.

Consider America’s inflation rates: 6.8% (2021), 7.1% (2022), 6.2% (2023);

Russia, embroiled in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, had a 2023 inflation rate of 7.42% and anticipates rates above 9% in 2024.

Relatively long-term possessions: gold, social security, real estate, and stocks of outstanding companies, of course, children hold the highest value.

All these must gradually be acquired within plans. Frankly, I don’t know why diamond rings are trendy during weddings—possibly the influence of Western strong culture, yet gold is truly more valuable. Gifting gold jewelry holds greater worth.
In old times depicted in films, when completely destitute, people pawned gold jewelry and gems.

Amidst deflation, with numerous consumption subsidies from the state, consumption became lucrative; in 2024, I replaced my car.

Speaking of which, despite driving seldom, the car I sold had been driven for over twelve years yet covered only a little over 70,000 kilometers. In recent years, especially the last decade, I recall taking long trips only once or twice; most drives occurred within Shenzhen or nearby regions. Lately, Shenzhen’s subway network expanded immensely, reaching 426 stations by late 2024, offering unparalleled convenience.

Every week included dining at various restaurants—not just family outings on weekends; sometimes, my spouse and I enjoyed grand lunches during workdays, contributing to national economy through enhanced consumption.

3: Continuous Learning

Life-long learning remains a necessity; thus, I continually purchase books for reading. For example, I read the newly published “The Soul of Engineers” commemorating BYD’s thirty years of existence.

I also procured books related to the history of Chinese manufacturing, such as sources about Nanjing’s Yu Gaike Factory and Northeast’s Arms Factory during the Republican era, all obtainable through online secondhand purchases.

In addition, biographies like “Elon’s Musk” and the like. I don’t buy many books, only spending a few hundred each year, yet reading them thoroughly is a given.

This habit of buying and reading books truly pays off—you needn’t concur with the author’s full views, but absorbing diverse perspectives helps immensely.

Thus far, the only book I’ve published, “The Future Stands with China,” though released years ago, contains historical data and viewpoints from that era, making it valuable for referencing material. Plus, collected within are my mostly viral articles, allowing insights into hot topics of those days, thus becoming a “Chronicle of Industry Evolution” as I presented it to the publisher. For those interested, a link follows:

With the current furore about Nvidia, AI, and large models, delving into learning them is imperative in 2024, otherwise understanding terms like tokens, LLMs, multimodal technologies, and CVs, or even knowing what P in computing power means remains elusive. Likewise, learning about notable AI companies and large models globally, their status, whether models are open sourced or proprietary, the term Llama as a model or company name, training card definitions as distinct from chips—grasping these helps digest AI news without strain.

Individual AI adaptation befits individuals; in 2024, following my suggestion, my wife developed a good habit of AI usage, which I too embraced and use daily—a significant 2024 transformation.

Incorporating AI into daily work, personal study, or grading a child’s test papers is immensely beneficial, and for instance, practicing English by conversing with AI.

Even the cover image of this article was AI-generated.

4: Attention to National Progress

Truthfully, I didn’t predict a Sputnik moment between China and America arriving so soon. On October 4, 1957, the launch of the Soviet artificial satellite “Sputnik 1” caused a major shock in the U.S., as America hadn’t launched a satellite into space. Americans label this as a “Sputnik moment,” representing the realization of technological advancement by a competitor and ensuing anxiety. I did ponder if a similar moment could occur between China and the U.S., assuming the most suitable scenario as China achieving manned lunar landings before America returns, likely occurring years later; Therefore, I consistently paid attention to lunar landings.

Unexpectedly, this moment arrived with sixth-generation fighter maiden flights on December 26th, with reportedly two southern and northern sixth-generation types flown—this surpassed America’s standards. Furthermore, contrasted against America’s mid-reign prosperity, America can’t surpass this quickly.

Moreover, following this trajectory, unifying Taiwan seems increasingly likely with a possibly Gulf-War-level or even surpassing victory, given Taiwan even lacks fifth-generation fighters to counter the J-20.

Despite several days passing since sixth-generation fighter flights, I still recall feeling ecstatic at home, repeating, “grateful for advanced technology first grasped by a civilized entity,” until my wife could recite these words.

Yet crucially, Western society’s attention to China’s sixth-generation fighters doesn’t parallel their past concern over Soviet satellite launches in 1957.

At that time, both American media and government had significant reactions; the satellite launched on October 4th, leading President Eisenhower to issue a specific statement on October 8th, further addressing it in his November speech.

Subsequently, America implemented institutional restructuring—founding NASA in 1958 and the U.S. Department of Defense establishing ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) in 1958 to explore potential technologies for military use.
Currently, lack of major reactions from America is apparent, with no Presidents issuing statements or even defense ministers’ statements in five or six days.

No reports of institutional restructurings have surfaced, including diverse “Made in China fails” or “China only steals U.S. technology” narratives on Twitter.

This mindset merits contemplation; though China is significantly stronger now than the Soviet Union of those times, Western societies seemingly viewed the Soviet threat and focus more seriously than China. Consider history and racial factors—Tsarist Russia was a European gendarme, and the Soviet Union, during WWII, dominated Eastern Europe and East Germany, later worldwide Cold War confrontations with America. Furthermore, Russian ethnicity aligns with whites—within Western subconsciousness, whites are perceived superior to Asians, holding physical and technological advantages, whereas Asians solely might match whites aided by numerical superiority.

Another major event in 2024 involves increasing attention to fertility rates; measures introduced in October urged local Communist Party secretaries to personally take charge and be fully responsible for supporting childbirth.