In recent news from Epoch Times on June 17, 2025, the Chinese economy continues to struggle, with a wave of closures hitting private businesses in the Yangtze River Delta region. Many business owners from Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces have revealed in interviews and videos that they are facing a sharp drop in orders, collapsing property markets, heavy debts, and some have resorted to “having a farewell dinner with employees” as they struggle to keep their businesses afloat. The situation has even led to thoughts of suicide for some.
The current economic crisis in China is seen not just as a cyclical downturn but as a clear manifestation of structural issues, as emphasized by scholars. The scenes of businesses shutting down are becoming increasingly common on social media platforms like Douyin and WeChat, showcasing factories being cleared out for auctions, offices being evacuated, and emotional moments as owners express their business failures.
In one heartbreaking video, a store owner who has been in business for only six months and has incurred losses of tens of thousands of yuan choked up while saying, “Tonight, we will have our farewell dinner. After this meal, we will take down the signboard and each employee will go home. I borrowed over a million yuan to open this store, and now I can’t even pay salaries or rent.”
The struggles extend beyond the food industry to e-commerce, manufacturing, construction, and more. A businessman named Zhou from Yangzhou, who is involved in e-commerce, expressed, “Many people are facing salary cuts or unemployment. Fewer people are dining out, street vendors can barely stay afloat, but profits are hard to come by.”
On June 17, Zhu Zhiying, who has been running a furniture business in Hangzhou for over a decade, revealed, “My factory has shut down. With no orders for three months, goods are piling up in the warehouse, and I still have to pay rent.” She also operates an export business for furniture, with a major market in the United States, but now orders have almost dried up, leading to either clearance sales or immediate closures among competitors.
Zhu Zhiying also mentioned the close link between the furniture industry and construction, stating, “Property prices have dropped by forty to fifty percent compared to 2016, and there’s no demand for land.” She has sent her children abroad and is considering immigrating with her family.
The construction industry is facing particularly harsh challenges. In Suzhou, a boss named Wang who has been in the construction supply business for over twenty years tearfully shared in a video, “I am in debt of 12 million yuan, and I contemplated suicide to end my suffering until a call from my daughter saved me.” His story has resonated widely across social media.
Formerly a multimillionaire, Lu Guoping, Chairman of Suzhou Donglin Decoration Engineering Company, appeared in tears in a video, revealing, “A decade ago, my annual output was tens of millions, but now I am in debt of twenty million yuan, wearing a watch worth 130,000 yuan, driving a car worth 500,000 yuan, and fleeing alone.”
In the comments section, many netizens empathized with Lu Guoping’s situation, with some expressing their struggles of not receiving any projects this year and feeling trapped. Some urged others to persevere and face the challenges ahead, while others lamented the difficulty of running a business and living in today’s society.
A manufacturing industry leader named Yue Li from Kunshan told journalists that private enterprises are collapsing rapidly like a chain reaction of falling dominoes, predicting a bleak outlook for the coming months where many may not survive the winter, whether they are factories, restaurants, or construction businesses.
Mr. Zhang, who has been working in foreign trade in Shenzhen, lamented, “I have been in foreign trade for twenty years and have never seen such difficulty. It is even harder now than in the early days of the reform and opening up thirty years ago. The economic prosperity is gone, and the good times for the Chinese people seem to have come to an end.”
Scholar Chang Kun from Zhejiang, in an interview with Epoch Times, explained that the Yangtze River Delta – historically an engine for Chinese manufacturing and export – is now in crisis due to shrinking orders, weak consumer demand, broken real estate chains, and multiple pressures. He emphasized the lack of confidence among private enterprises in the future, leading to a reluctance to invest, citing structural slide due to uncertainty in systems and policies rather than just economic cycles.
Chang Kun further noted that private enterprises were once the symbol of China’s economic vitality, employing eighty percent of the population and playing a crucial role in job creation. However, last year, over six million college graduates couldn’t find employment, and this year there would be 12.2 million graduates. Without private enterprises, these graduates might become a burden to society and even pose a security threat to China.
He remarked that as businesses continue to shut down in succession, various sectors are feeling the intensifying chill. Faced with dwindling external orders and unstable internal policies, many business owners see merely “surviving” as their sole aspiration. The upcoming winter may turn out to be longer and harsher than they anticipate.