Wage Arrears Crisis Spreads in China; Employees Post Videos Pleading for Help

Wage arrears crisis spreads in China. Employees post videos pleading for help. Foshan epidemic heats up. Citizens line up to draw blood for nucleic acid tests. Four Chinese in Los Angeles protested for a week at the Chinese consulate to speak out for Falun Gong. Wage arrears crisis spreads in China. Employees post videos pleading for help. Recently, a wage-demanding wave has erupted in many places in China. Construction workers have dismantled completed steel structures in anger due to long-term wage arrears. Company employees have filmed videos to publicly defend their rights. Interns have been deprived of basic labor protections because of signing internship agreements. Labor experts warn that if the wage arrears protection mechanism continues to fail, it may trigger wider social unrest. From construction sites to manufacturing workshops, from performance venues to office front desks, wage arrears are occurring across China. In the past four days, provinces such as Shandong, Hainan and Guangdong have reported incidents of companies withholding wages, project owners running away, and workers being unable to protect their rights. According to videos and messages circulating on social platforms such as TikTok, on July 23, employees of the Shandong Meibang Board Industry Company collectively stated that the company boss had lost contact after defaulting on wages. The company has been in a state of suspension, and the employees have demanded their wages many times but to no avail. The next day, Guangdong Foshan, Fengchai Infant Products was also publicly accused by employees of long-term wage arrears. Employees said that the company has repeatedly promised to repay the wages next month, but has never fulfilled its promise. The Datang labor market in Guangzhou's Haizhou district is a famous gathering place for temporary workers in South China. Mr. Li from Luoyang, Hainan, worked in Guangzhou for three months, but never received any salary. He has a special identity. He is the father of a child who was a victim of a vaccine accident. Due to years of rights protection, his life became difficult, and he could only make a living by doing temporary jobs. He told The Epoch Times, The company can't pay my salary, and now I'm out of work again. I went to collect my salary last Friday, but the company still said they didn't have the money and asked me to come back next week. They've pushed it back so many times. What do you think I should do? Mr. Li said that he had called the local labor inspection hotline for help, but the other party only responded, we will contact you after verification, and no one has responded so far. Now even those who owe money are justified, and the government doesn't care about you at all. How can people like us have the right to speak? Everything for the people is a lie. The problem of unpaid wages has also affected large public events. On July 24th, the International Jockey Club Beer Festival held in Jinan was exposed for failing to pay the wages of the exhibition and construction workers. The staff filmed a video and asked for help on social media, saying that they had tried to get their wages many times but failed. One netizen commented, we started working on June 25th, but our wages have not been settled as of July 1st. Aren't we human beings? Others said that they had called Jinan's 12345 municipal hotline for help, but were told that the call will not be accepted. On July 25th, an employee of Hainan Guang'an Hechuan Decoration Engineering Co., Ltd. posted a video online demanding salary, saying that he had been owed wages since before the Chinese New Year. The person in charge changed the contact information and could no longer be contacted, and the company seemed to be deserted. What has attracted even more widespread public attention is the intense protest that took place on July 26th at the construction site of Zhongjun World City Phase 3 in Gaomi City, Weifang, Shandong. The video shows several construction workers angrily pulling out steel bars and filming protest videos at the construction site, accusing the project party of long-term wage arrears. Although the relevant images were quickly deleted from platforms such as TikTok and Weibo, the screenshots had already been widely circulated, resonating with a number of netizens. Mr. Wang, a Chinese labor advocate, told the Epoch Times that some workers no longer trust official channels for defending their rights and have begun protesting by demolishing completed projects. I recently saw some videos where renovation workers smashed the tiles, walls, and even the installed glass windows. This is their new protest strategy and a choice they are forced to make. Since they have no other choice, they use the most direct way to protest. At the same time, interns have also become victims of wage arrears. On July 26th, a young female accountant in Shanghai released a video saying that she had interned at a company for two months. The agreement stated that her monthly salary was 5,000 yuan. However, when settling the bill, the company refused to pay on the grounds that, The internship agreement does not constitute a labor relationship. Although she applied for labor arbitration and received support, the company only gave her 200 yuan in cash on the spot. According to the female accountant's disclosure on social media, the company sent letters to her university several times afterwards, asking her to, return all wages and threatening to make it impossible for her to find a job in the industry after graduation. Labor rights activist Mr. Wang said China's vague definition of internship allows companies to exploit students without legal protections or fair pay. A labor law researcher added that many firms under financial strain cut wages first and rely on loopholes and weak enforcement to avoid accountability. Local governments often ignore wage arrears to attract investment, forcing workers to resort to desperate protests like dismantling projects, an alarming trend. Foshan epidemic heats up, citizens line up to draw blood for nucleic acid tests. The recent outbreak of chikungunya fever in Foshan, Guangdong, is spreading rapidly. In addition to Macau and Beijing outside the province, it has now spread to 12 cities in Guangdong. The Foshan authorities restarted nucleic acid testing and required citizens to line up for blood tests, causing panic among the people, who were worried that the CCP would restart the city lockdown measures. According to the latest official report, as of July 26, Guangdong province has a total of 4,824 confirmed cases, of which more than 4,000 are in Foshan. Chikungunya fever is an infectious disease caused by mosquito bites. Patients have symptoms such as fever, rash, and joint pain. Although the authorities claim that the infected are all mild cases, there are no severe cases or deaths. However, the epidemic prevention measures implemented by the authorities have made Foshan seem to have returned to the COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control period overnight, causing panic among the people. Online videos show that Foshan residents began to line up for blood tests, and epidemic prevention personnel carried sprayers to spray smoke everywhere. Foshan authorities claimed that 53 hospitals have been designated as treatment centers, and the number of mosquito-proof isolation beds has also increased from 3,696 to 7,220. There are also 40 hospitals that can conduct nucleic acid testing projects for the Chikungunya fever virus. Local residents complained online, it feels like COVID-19 again, and it's upgraded, blood tests are being done instead of throat tests. Another netizen revealed that someone at his workplace had Chikungunya fever, and more than 30 police officers followed him every day. Now, if you catch a cold in Foshan, you have to have your blood drawn when you go to the hospital. In addition, the government has also launched a campaign-style mosquito eradication operation in the local area, with some villages requiring the removal of all crops and agricultural tools, the eradication of greenbelts, and even wasteland. Four Chinese in Los Angeles protested for a week at the Chinese consulate to speak out for Falun Gong. The Falun Gong practitioners' activities to commemorate the 26th anniversary of the an end, but after the public learned the truth, they continued to speak out for Falun Gong. From July 21 to 25, four Chinese youths in Los Angeles went to the Chinese consulate in Los Angeles to protest for a week, condemning the CCP's 26-year persecution of Falun Gong practitioners and the crimes of live organ harvesting. These four young people are all from mainland China. They were deceived by the CCP's smear propaganda and only learned the truth about Falun Gong after going abroad. Feng Zhao from Hefei, Anhui, said that he often met Falun Gong practitioners in the park near his residence. These practitioners are completely different from what he imagined. They are gentle, rational, well-educated, and have firm beliefs. Hearing these practitioners talk about their experiences of persecution in China, he was shocked and heartbroken. Feng Zhao believes that the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong is a suppression of all conscience. He said, This persecution is not just about Falun Gong, but about each and every one of us. Just like the live organ harvesting, if we don't speak out, it will be our turn tomorrow. Liu Min from Chengdu, Sichuan, saw the so-called Tiananmen self-immolation broadcast by the CCP on TV when he was a child. Later, he learned that this incident was a play directed and performed by the CCP to demonize Falun Gong. He said that it was only after he came overseas and came into contact with the Falun Gong group that he felt that these practitioners were sincere, kind, and very tolerant people, and then he learned the truth about Falun Gong. Liu Min said, Falun Gong practice is beneficial to physical and mental health, but the CCP suppresses and persecutes such a group, so I am willing to stand up and speak for them. 70 million jobs lost. Factories gone. Wages stolen. Families homeless. Inside China's collapse. 70 million people in China are now jobless. Factories shuttered. Wages left unpaid. Families driven from their homes. This isn't just an economic downturn. It's a human tragedy unfolding across China. Once, these people had stable jobs and roofs over their heads. They believed in China's promise of endless growth. Today, they sleep beneath highway bridges. Eviction papers in one pocket. Pink layoff slips in the other. The World Bank forecasts that China's adult unemployment rate will be 4.47% in 2025, equivalent to 70 million unemployed people, pushing many into poverty, invisibility, and despair. The boom years feel like a distant memory. China's rise was powered by steel and sweat. Its coastal cities like Dongguan, Foshan, and Shenzhen were manufacturing legends, churning out electronics, furniture, clothing, anything and everything the world demanded. Rural workers flooded in from the hinterlands, drawn by the promise of dorm beds, hot meals, and salaries that once meant the end of generational poverty. For many, the dream was simple. Work hard, buy a home, take care of your parents, give your kids a better life. And for a while, it worked. The foundation of China's industrial dream was always shaky. Most factory jobs lacked contracts or protections. Workers could be dismissed overnight. As China shifted to high-tech and domestic consumption, the need for cheap labor declined. Then came the pandemic. Lockdowns halted production, global demand collapsed, and supply chains broke. Thousands of small and mid-sized factories never reopened. Even major firms relocated or automated. The government promised recovery, but reality told a different story. Exports slumped, consumer spending stalled, and in places like Guangdong, factory closures became routine. Industrial zones now lie abandoned, gates locked, equipment rusting, dormitories empty. Once busy areas are now silent reminders of a fading era. Take a closer look at Dongguan. Workshops sit idle, their tools collecting dust. Job boards that once overflowed with listings now hang blank. Groups of former workers linger at factory entrances, not to clock in, but to protest unpaid wages. Unofficial labor groups estimate that over 20 million manufacturing jobs have disappeared in just two years. Yet because many of these workers were migrants, they're not even counted in official statistics. Whole neighborhoods once built to house workers have turned into ghost towns. The lights are off. The people are gone. In Shenzhen's Longhua district, once a hub of electronics manufacturing, the decline is clear. A former iPhone factory foreman recalled, Now it's two days a week. Most co-workers are gone, without pay or notice. In Foshan, unpaid wages are common, and many workers have been evicted from factory housing. Charities report a rise in homeless former employees, especially older ones, now sleeping in parks and underpasses, discarded and forgotten. This is the aftermath of a dream sold too quickly, built too recklessly. Behind China's glittering skyline lies a crumbling reality. The factory of the world is falling silent, and with it, the hopes of millions. Across China, quiet desperation is boiling over. Small-scale protests flare and vanish, snuffed out before they can spread. Leaked clips on Chinese social media show workers with homemade banners that scream, Moments later, they're dragged away by police. In March, an entire workshop in Zhongshan was seized by angry workers for three days, after management disappeared without paying wages. When officials finally showed up, they removed the protesters but gave no answers. The despair runs deep. In the outskirts of Dongguan, abandoned construction sites have become makeshift homes for the jobless. Squatters live in skeletal buildings with plastic sheets for windows, cooking over open flames. The official story paints a different picture. According to state media, the economy is booming, driven by innovation and new industries. Headlines talk of AI, EVs, and robotics. What they don't mention? The tens of millions of low-skilled workers left stranded. The government's solution? A flood of propaganda, not policy. Billions go to chip factories and electric cars, but the average factory worker gets nothing. There's no meaningful retraining, no safety net, and no way to legally claim unpaid wages unless a local court accepts the case, a rare outcome given how overwhelmed and politically cautious they are. For migrant laborers, the reality is even bleaker. No contracts, no unemployment insurance, no pension. When the job vanishes, so do their rights. They're not just unemployed, they're uncounted. What's unfolding isn't a sudden collapse. It's a slow, suffocating unraveling of an economic machine that was never built to last. Factories that once buzzed with global demand now sit in silence, casualties of a global shift. Western companies, spooked by rising costs and political risks, are moving elsewhere. Vietnam, India, even back home. And China? It has no backup plan. The old export model is dead, but Beijing keeps pretending it isn't. There was no transition strategy for the factory workforce, just wishful thinking about tech dreams replacing assembly lines. In city after city, workshops are shutting their doors overnight, vanishing without warning or compensation. Meanwhile, the push for domestic consumption has hit a wall. Households are drowning in debt. Property values are collapsing. People are tightening their belts, not spending. So factories die slower, cutting hours, delaying pay, and then folding completely. And while flashy tech parks rise in places like Shenzhen, nearby towns decay. Local governments, once flush with borrowed cash, are now broke. They can't fund basic services, let alone help unemployed citizens. Instead, they're slashing budgets, selling off land and cracking down on dissent. This isn't just an economic downturn. It's a failure of vision, a refusal to adapt, and a betrayal of the very people who built China's rise. The boarded windows, the abandoned tools, the tearful eyes in dusty villages, they're all part of the same story. A superpower falling apart, piece by piece, while pretending everything is fine. China is wagering its future on luxury tech, AI labs, and high-end dreams, while leaving its workers behind like obsolete machines. The nation's foundation is cracking under the weight of three forces, a broken economic model, a missing social safety net, and an investment vision designed for the elite, not the everyday. This isn't a sudden collapse. It's a slow, creeping catastrophe, one that's no longer hidden, and no longer deniable. Statistics don't shed tears, but behind every job lost is a person who does. We're talking about millions of lives unraveling, families living in cars or abandoned factories, parents too ashamed to return home, young people vanishing from city streets as hope drains away. In the shadows of cities like Dongguan and Foshan, you'll find scenes that feel post-apocalyptic. Factory dorms abandoned, meals skipped, blankets shared. Charity workers now hand out food and coats in places that once hummed with industrial pride, and the ones who make it back to their villages? They don't return as heroes, they return empty-handed, haunted by debt and shame. This is more than financial ruin, it's a psychological implosion. A growing number of workers, especially men in their 30s and 40s, are breaking under the pressure. They take to online platforms not to vent, but to whisper cries for help into the void. Lying flat isn't laziness, it's surrender. I'm not angry, wrote one man in Jiangmen. I just don't want to be here anymore. The despair runs deep. Being unable to provide for parents, unable to afford a future for children, too mentally drained to even imagine a way out. Mental health support? Almost non-existent. Therapy is a luxury. Crisis hotlines are underfunded, and stigma keeps people silent. At the same time, social cohesion is starting to fracture. With no jobs come no homes, with no homes comes no security. But it's when trust disappears, trust in the system, in society, in tomorrow, that things truly begin to break. Meanwhile, the divide between the urban and rural poor is widening. Migrant workers feel alien in the cities they helped build, yet there's nothing waiting for them back home, only aging relatives and crumbling farmland. What's collapsing is not just an economy, but the web of relationships that keeps a society together. In Chinese culture, the family is sacred, but one lost job can unravel everything. Kids are pulled from school, medications are skipped, fights erupt behind closed doors, elderly parents quietly skip meals in freezing apartments, their dignity eroded alongside their savings, couples fall apart, grandparents cry silently in silence they can't afford. These aren't one-off tragedies, they're the new reality. A systemic unraveling of a working-class, abandoned mid-journey. This is not just about GDP, it's about human survival. If nothing changes, this won't just be a crisis, it will be a collapse too deep to reverse.