Wage-Arrears Incidents Frequent Toward Year’s End on the Mainland

As the year-end approaches, waves of wage protests have erupted across multiple provinces and cities in China. (Video screenshot)

[People News] Every year as the year-end approaches, collective wage-claim incidents by workers from various industries can be seen across China. This year is no exception—and they have been even more frequent than in previous years. According to incomplete statistics by “Yiyan Net,” an outlet under “Freedom House,” protest incidents in China in the third quarter of this year increased by 45 percent year-on-year compared with last year, reaching 1,392 cases, with a sharp surge in incidents involving “threats to jump from buildings” as a means of rights defense.

On the overseas X platform, some netizens posted videos showing that on December 11, workers demanded unpaid wages from China Railway Sixth Group Co., Ltd. for Section 1 of the Yundong Road project in Beijing’s sub-center.

On December 10, videos showed that at the gate bearing the sign “Guangxi Daily Media,” security guards stood in a long row blocking migrant workers from entering the compound. Outside the gate stood dozens of migrant workers demanding unpaid wages. The person filming the video accused “Guangxi Daily” of owing migrant workers money and refusing to pay, and of even sending security guards to block their way.

Netizens mocked: “This is kind of funny—now even Party media are defaulting on payments.”

Another video on X also drew attention: On December 8, workers at the Qinghai Province “replace small with large” thermal power unit project of China Power Construction Nuclear Power Co., Ltd. collectively demanded unpaid wages, with one female worker holding a child while seeking payment. The video also displayed subtitles saying: “Who can understand the bitterness of bringing a child along to demand unpaid wages?”

Netizens commented on X: “As the economy continues to deteriorate, such incidents will only become more frequent. Looking back ten years from now, people will find that 2025 was the best year of the decade.”

“A worker bringing a child to demand wages—this is the most heartbreaking and most desperate image. They know that only by bringing the child, the most vulnerable and morally shocking element, to the scene can they attract attention. Children are not there to witness their parents’ efforts; they are there to witness the cruelty and coldness of this society.”

According to The Dajiyuan, China’s economy has declined in recent years. Not only private enterprises, but also many state-owned enterprises and official institutions have fallen into debt crises. It has become increasingly difficult for migrant workers to collect unpaid wages. Many people are asking: “Why is everyone having such a hard time this year?”

A large number of widely circulated videos show that migrant workers’ methods of demanding wages have also become increasingly intense. From collective kneeling, to collective threats of jumping from buildings, many have adopted various extreme threat tactics to demand payment. Some renovation workers smashed completed interior decorations. Others seeking payment used excavators to overturn vehicles at construction sites and smash the bosses’ cars.

One netizen said: “The CCP on one hand monopolizes 70 percent of the nation’s corporate assets, on the other hand sets its own tyrannical rules of law, and on yet another hand monopolizes all the tools of violent suppression. Then one billion Chinese people are left with only the outcome of being slaughtered and eaten by an authoritarian beast, only half-awakening when they are being devoured. At the top of the food chain behind most wage arrears, the bloodsucking vampires are the CCP itself—on one side driving Chinese people to death, on the other breeding slaves.”

Some netizens said: “Only by completely overthrowing the CCP and changing the system can China’s social problems be resolved in a lasting way! Most disasters in China are systemic disasters—they are all caused by the anti-human CCP system that drives people to dead ends…”

X user “Erka” commented: “The economy ahead will only get worse. Countries and companies everywhere are withdrawing from China; central and local state-owned enterprises in the CCP country are all defaulting on wages. It will only become more serious. Those who dare to resist should make good use of wisdom, make good use of water and fire; those who cannot resist should lie flat—endure it until the Chinese Communist Party perishes.” △