As China’s Economy Weakens, Tens of Thousands of Workers Protest Against Unpaid Wages

Tens of thousands of workers in China have not received their full salaries, or have not been paid for months, employees across several sectors told The Epoch Times.

In April and early May, dozens of protests flared up, with unpaid or underpaid workers demanding wages or benefits owed to them.

Some workers alleged that their employers recently shut down factories and disappeared. In other instances, employers allegedly withheld salaries or benefits for several months.

Those involved in the disputes are from a broad range of sectors, including automotive, construction, property, mining, electronics, pharmaceuticals, medical, textile, leisure, and government.

Auto Sector

Electric vehicle manufacturer Neta Auto, once a rising star in China’s auto industry, has been paying only half of its employees’ wages since September 2024 and has unilaterally cut their salaries, according to one worker.

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He and the other individuals interviewed by the Chinese-language edition of The Epoch Times remain anonymous throughout the article because of potential reprisal from authorities.

“I only received half of my salary for September and October (2024), and from November, I received half of the lowered salaries,” the worker said.

“I was paid 2,690 yuan (about $373) a month, that’s the minimum salary in Shanghai. Some 2,000 yuan is definitely not enough, and it’s difficult to find employment now.”

The worker noted that “in the auto industry, at least in Shanghai, factories are all laying people off—no one is hiring.”

He added that employees didn’t agree to the pay cuts or any delayed payment of their salaries, and that the management has been pressuring people to resign.

An open letter from 6,000 Neta Auto employees, published on Chinese social media WeChat on April 30, said the company owed each worker an average of more than 100,000 yuan (about $13,850) and that it told local authorities that it was paying full salaries in order to claim financial support. The letter alleged that management had encouraged employees to buy company stocks but had embezzled the funds.

The workers demanded full payment of their wages plus compensation. Other demands included an investigation into the company by the authorities in Zhejiang.

Neta is an electric car brand of Shanghai-headquartered carmaker Hozon Auto.

In 2022, Neta was the best-selling brand among the so-called new powers in China’s automaking industry, with more than 152,000 cars sold during the year, according to Anhui Business Daily. However, the newspaper said the company’s low-pricing strategy meant that it was not making a profit and had lost 18.3 billion yuan between 2021 and 2023.

In 2024, the company sold 64,500 cars, according to Chinese media outlets that cited the China Automobile Dealers Association. This January, fewer than 200 cars were sold.

Neta’s situation was also widely reported by Chinese media outlets, which said that dealers were demanding compensation because they had not received cars that had already been ordered and paid for, and couldn’t get parts to maintain services to Neta car owners.

According to information published on the National Enterprise Bankruptcy Information Disclosure Platform, Shanghai Yuxing Advertising agency filed a bankruptcy review application against Hozon Auto in mid-May.

A notice in the video posted by Yesterday said Weilixing Toys couldn’t afford to maintain production. The notice to all employees said that the company had been losing money because of declining international trade and that its clients had ceased partnership with the company.

The notice said the local government would intervene to settle wage disputes, debts, and unemployment issues, and that the company would “strictly adhere to government instructions and bankruptcy regulations.”

One of the workers told The Epoch Times that the owners were 23 million yuan in debt. She said the company was closing the factory in Shenzhen, one of China’s first-tier cities, to relocate production to its facility in Heyuan, a fourth-tier city in the same province that’s about 110 miles from Shenzhen.

“Basic wages were paid, but not bonuses,” the worker said.

“Some workers had worked at the factory for more than 10 or 20 years—there’s no compensation,” she noted, adding that the company wouldn’t take employees to the new factory.

In addition to some 200 factory workers, subcontractors and unpaid suppliers were also affected, and the protesters were blocking the removal of equipment from the factory, the worker said.

The Epoch Times could not reach Weilixing Toys for comment.

Workers had been told in April to take two months off, leading to a month-long protest because workers believed that they were forced to leave. In the year leading up to the demonstrations, Yuangao had transferred part of its production to other factories, leaving workers with less overtime payment, Yesterday said in one of the posts.

A worker who recently left the company told The Epoch Times that employees had been paid basic wages, and the disputes were over underpaid insurance and housing provident funds.

He said Yuangao’s owner has begun production in Vietnam and wants to shut down the factories in China.

After being told to take leave, “workers still punched in every day, demanding bonuses and benefits,“ he said. ”The owner then uninstalled the clocking machine in all five factories and shut down the canteen, escalating the conflicts.”

According to the worker, the company’s five factories had employed up to 6,000 people, but they now have about 2,000 employees, all of whom were told to take leave.

Many workers are middle-aged or nearing retirement, with few prospects for finding other employment.

The Epoch Times was unable to reach the companies for comment.

“The factory should have been shut down long ago,” he said.

According to Yesterday, manufacturers embroiled in wage-related protests and strikes in the past seven weeks include a denture maker in Chengdu, Sichuan Province; a clothing factory and a shoe maker in Guangdong; a shoe maker in Chongqing; Leader Tech Electronics compounds located in Sichuan and Hubei; paper manufacturers in Shandong and Guangdong; a flour mill in Henan; Ruiying Pharmaceutical in Shandong; and Changqing Biology Science and Technology in Shanxi.

Construction

A Chinese agency worker temporarily residing at the North Kalimantan economic zone in Indonesia said he’s still waiting to receive wages for January and April. He worked on an aluminum factory building project under the state-owned China Nonferrous Metals Industry’s 12th Metallurgical Construction Co., Ltd.

“There is not much work now, so the company wants to lay people off,” he said.

The construction worker said the agency nitpicked about laborers’ work and told them that they were not wanted anymore.

“Six or seven people had left, and the costs of flights and visa processing were deducted from their pay,” he said.

“For instance, if you were let go after one month, they would deduct 11 months of the visa fee.”

Earlier this month, when he and his co-workers blocked a manager’s way to demand wages, the manager threatened to run them over, the worker said.

In a Jan. 14 statement, the company highlighted its project in North Kalimantan, worth 410 million yuan, as a successful example of the Chinese regime’s Belt and Road Initiative, a global infrastructure development project.

The Epoch Times was unable to reach the company for comment.

According to Yesterday, workers at six other construction sites owned by various companies have also taken action to demand wages, including in Inner Mongolia, Sichuan, Guangdong, Hunan, and Hong Kong.

A worker in Laizhou, Shandong Province, who is part of a crew working on a photovoltaic project run by China Construction Eighth Engineering Division Corp., Ltd., said that workers have not been paid at all this year.

The worker, employed by a subcontractor, told The Epoch Times that his boss from the same village has been carrying out work for the corporation for more than 10 years.

“The boss said China Construction Eighth Engineering Division has not paid him,” he said. “We worked for the company in Laizhou in 2023; they were good on payment, and we were paid 100 percent every month.

“I don’t know what happened this year.”

The Epoch Times contacted China Construction Eighth Engineering Division Corp., Ltd., for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.

Yesterday reported that Chinese and Indonesian workers protested over pay against two other state-owned Chinese companies running a separate Belt and Road project in Indonesia, in which the companies are building and equipping a nickel smelting plant.

The Epoch Times contacted China National Chemical Engineering Sixth Construction Co., Ltd., for comment but did not receive a response by publication time. The Epoch Times was unable to reach China 19th Metallurgical Group Corp., Ltd.

In Beijing, an employee at the Visionland Liuzhou entertainment park told The Epoch Times that workers have not been paid for five months.

The Epoch Times was unable to contact Visionland for comment.

A teacher in Jinan, Shandong Province, told the publication that non-permanent teachers at their school have not been paid for four or five months because local authorities didn’t have the funds to pay them.

Gu Xiaohua contributed to this report.