As the year comes to a close, a wave of wage protests has once again swept across the mainland of China. At the China Railway Sixth Group in Beijing, workers are demanding unpaid wages; in Guangxi, the office of the Guangxi Daily, a publication of the Communist Party of China, was blocked by protesting laborers seeking payment; and in a project site of China Power Construction Corporation in Qinghai, workers, some accompanied by their children, are also demanding their overdue wages.
On December 11th, workers at the Beijing Urban Center East Road Engineering Project, Section 1, of China Railway Sixth Group Limited Company protested due to unpaid wages. A video captured the scene.
On December 10th, a video showed a group of security guards standing in formation at the entrance bearing the sign of “Guangxi Daily Media,” blocking laborers from entering the premises. Dozens of laborers stood outside demanding their wages. The video accuser claimed that the Guangxi Daily owed wages to rural laborers and even dispatched security guards to obstruct them.
Netizens sarcastically remarked, “It’s a bit ironic that even state media is now in debt.”
On December 8th, workers at the project site of a “Big Pressure on Small” thermal power unit of Qinghai Province under China Power Construction Corporation’s Nuclear Power Limited Company were seen demanding wages, some with their children present.
A message left by a netizen on X platform reads, “As the economy worsens, we will see more and more of such incidents. Looking back in ten years, we may find that 2025 was actually the best year of the past decade.”
“Workers demanding wages with their children – this is the most heart-wrenching and despairing scene. They know that bringing their most vulnerable and morally compelling element, their children, to the site is the only way to draw attention. Children are not there to witness the efforts of their elders but to witness the cruelty and ruthlessness of this society.”
“Why is everyone struggling so much this year?”
In recent years, the Chinese economy has been declining. Not only private enterprises but also many state-owned enterprises and official institutions are facing debt crises. It is becoming increasingly difficult for rural workers to demand their wages.
Numerous videos circulated on the internet show that the methods used by laborers to claim their wages are becoming more aggressive. From collective kneeling to group threats of jumping off buildings, many are resorting to extreme measures to demand payment. Some construction workers have destroyed finished decorations. Others use excavators to flip over construction vehicles on the site, smashing their employer’s car.
Research by the “Dissident Net” under the “House of Freedom” indicates that the number of protest events in China increased by 45% in the third quarter of this year compared to the same period last year, reaching 1,392 incidents, with a significant rise in events involving “threats of jumping off buildings” to defend rights.
One netizen expressed, “Only by completely overthrowing the Communist Party of China, by changing the system, can the social problems in China be permanently resolved! Most disasters in China are systemic disasters, whether it is suicide or homicide, it is the anti-human system of the Chinese Communist Party that drives people to a dead end.”