Many things wrong with that statement. There is a reverse migration from cities back to countryside, since the wages in the city have fallen, jobs have disappeared, rent is still expensive, and it's harder to justify living in the city when you can only save a few hundred dollars a year from a job.
Thus, empty retail stores in major tier 1 cities. Empty apartments in Dongguan and Shenzhen. Small crowds at malls.
I think a lot of people living in the west without ties to china haven't realized that there are many huge but sometimes subtle changes in China in the last view years.
Isn't that like the people who claim that huge sky scraper in Tianjin will be finished any day now?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldin_Finance_117
Kangbashi is up to 100k now, at least, but they designed for a million, so it is still pretty empty. As soon as coal becomes big again, maybe it will fill up.
Wangfujing and Sanlitun, which used to be one of the bustling streets in Beijing, now empty
I think it’s much too early to really say the trend is sticking.
[1] https://open.spotify.com/episode/7s85fsvxULfVNGxUVQAMtT?si=g...