A Chinese accounting student, when asked about Universal Basic Income, experiences a rapid cognitive shift. “The idea is beautiful,” she concludes, “but would this even work here (in China)?”This whiplash is commonly seen when discussing basic income. This is one of the latest takeaways from the summer cohort of researchers in BIEN’s UBI Youth Scholars Program. Recently, the youth scholars interviewed laypeople in China about their thoughts on basic income. Faced with these hurdles, the consensus among the youth scholars was that the path forward is a communications battle.