The reason for the decline of Northeast China is simple, that is, the economy has been drained by state-owned enterprises. Northeast China is a model of the global Soviet style economy. The planned economy of the Soviet Union has collapsed, and state-owned enterprises in Northeast China are still struggling to survive.

In the 1990s, with the reform of state-owned enterprises, a large number of small and medium-sized state-owned enterprises were sold and millions of workers were laid off. That was once an opportunity for Northeast China to turn death into life. Unfortunately, the reform was not thorough, leaving behind many large state-owned enterprises.

In 2003, the "Revitalization of Northeast China" strategy was launched, and a large amount of government investment revived state-owned enterprises in Northeast China, and local governments became strong again. During this period, the direction of state-owned enterprise reform also went wrong, from "selling state-owned enterprises and shedding burdens" in the 1990s to "strategic restructuring, becoming bigger and stronger", and the Northeast economy returned to the era of state-owned enterprise glory.

The monopoly and greed of state-owned enterprises have a long history. They rely on administrative and monopolistic advantages to occupy a large amount of social and natural resources, but in terms of management mode, they are still bureaucratic. In addition to relying on price increases and policy factors to plunder the people for windfall profits, their contribution to the country and the people can be said to be negligible.

During the decline of state-owned enterprises in the 1990s, many Northeasterners turned to small commodity and border trade businesses, which made them somewhat angry. Nowadays, such news is almost invisible. In 2012, I visited Panjin, Liaoning and stayed in that city for a few days. The ubiquitous assets of Liaohe Oilfield left a deep impression, with almost no decent private enterprises visible.

In addition, a major characteristic of state-owned enterprise oriented cities is their excellent convenience and abundance of pharmacies. There is no other reason. The almost universal medical insurance system has made the trend of "buying medicine, swiping cards, and using cash" very strong, and has become a characteristic industry. What is the way out in such an economic environment?

I also have some friends and relatives from Northeast China in my life, most of whom are stuck in the thinking of "entering a large state-owned enterprise and finding a latte job" in the planned era, at most profiting from part-time jobs. If there is a national evaluation, I believe that Northeastern people are the most greedy animals for the system.

Fortunately, this is not the case across the country. Those capable and ambitious Northeasterners have traveled south to Beijing and Guangdong, which are developed market economies, to work hard.

Except for Liaoning, which has a small net inflow of population every year (with the majority coming from Heilongjiang and Jilin), the three northeastern provinces have a net outflow of nearly 2 million people annually, making them one of the regions with the highest proportion of population outflow in China. These outflow populations are basically somewhat adventurous, with almost no input of fresh blood.

The dominant position of state-owned enterprises and the strong power of the government have also led to a negative outcome: the most thorough implementation of family planning. Northeast China has the lowest fertility rate in the country.