On Monday, January 12th, Sky News reported that its team of journalists in China had a terrifying encounter as they were forcibly shoved into a car by Chinese police and had their cameras confiscated.
According to the report, the growing resentment among the Chinese public is on the rise, but it’s challenging to capture on camera. This is because the Chinese authorities often swiftly suppress protests, local media does not report on them, and the Chinese internet army also deletes messages or videos on social media.
Data has shown that civil protests in China are on the rise, with the majority of them being related to economic issues.
Sky News’ journalist team was covering the strike and protest of employees at the electronic company Yi Li Sheng in Shenzhen. The factory produces audio equipment like headphones.
At the time of the strike, which had entered its fourth day, reporters witnessed hundreds of workers wearing matching blue uniforms marching on the streets, while dozens of police and security personnel tried to encircle them.
The atmosphere on the scene was tense, with anyone approaching being warned not to film.
Journalist Helen-Ann Smith wrote, “It felt like a standoff, with one side wanting to voice their opinions and the other trying to suppress them.”
“Despite China’s (Communist Party’s) efforts to cover it up, these standoffs are actually increasing dramatically,” she added.
Workers mentioned that most of the factory’s production capacity had been moved overseas, resulting in reduced working hours and inadequate wages to sustain a basic lifestyle in a high-cost city like Shenzhen.
“Last month, my salary was only 1900 yuan,” a woman tearfully told the reporter, “This is impossible! How can one survive in Shenzhen with this salary?”
“The exploitation by the factory is unbearable,” she said, “It’s too hard to go on.”
Yi Li Sheng did not respond to Sky News’ request for comment.
Smith mentioned that when they approached the protesting crowd and the workers realized they were from foreign media, the crowd began cheering, chanting slogans, and some raised their fists.
However, the response from the Chinese authorities swiftly followed. Some immediately covered the cameras with their hands, and a few men pulled the media reporters aside, confiscated their cameras, and forcibly put them into a car and took them away.
“We were not physically harmed, but in that moment, we felt genuine fear. It seemed to show how much this country does not want dissent to be seen by the world,” Smith wrote.
She warned that just because it’s difficult to capture protest activities on camera in China doesn’t mean such activities are not common.
According to the research organization Freedom House’s branch China Dissent Monitor (CDM), which collects and analyzes data, more than 5000 protest events occurred within China in the first 11 months of 2025, a 48% increase compared to the same period in 2024.
CDM gathers most of its data by continuously monitoring Chinese social media and acknowledges that there may be more events that have not been discovered in time or never uploaded.
“The number of protest activities in the real world in China is far greater than what we have recorded,” explained CDM’s research director, Kevin Slaten. “We cannot precisely estimate how many times more.”
According to CDM’s records, since June 2022, 85% of protest activities have been related to economic disputes.