The demonstrations of Chinese construction workers, teachers and factory employees demanding unpaid wages have broken out through China in recent days in the midst of growing public anger concerning the impacts of the tightening of local government finances, according to workers and touched videos published on social networks.
From the northern province of Hebei to China to the southern autonomous region of Guanxi, on the border of Vietnam, and to its neighboring coastal province of Guangdong – Chinese workers are faced with the complete impact of institutions short of money striking the means to survive the economic slowdown.
In an example of local governments measures to collect funds, the Pingtang village committee in the city of Gushan, in the Eastern province of Zhejiang, published an opinion indicating that “sanitation management costs” and “parking costs” would be collected from all residents of May 10.
Those who did not pay in time would be subject to additional costs and tight vehicles from June 1. Addressing Radio Free Asia, some premises and rights activists qualified The Move as “blatant extortion” and “illegal”. The local government said that it was investigating the issue.
Last November, the Chinese finance ministry announced 10 Billions of Yuan (1.38 Billion of US dollars) of new measures to help local governments run short with the levels of assembly debt stimulated by a real estate market crisis which crushed sales of land transactions, one of their main sources of tax income.
“The high local debt and the tightening of central policies have seriously affected budgetary operations. He wanted to be identified by a single name for security reasons.
On May 19, workers in section No. 10 of the Yangxin Expressway Civil Engineering Project under China Railway Seventh Group Co. Ltd. gathered in front of the branch of the management department and asked that they be paid for their salary, according to a video published by an eminent citizen journalist who does not manage the X @whyoutouzhele account, also known as “Mr. Li is not your teacher ”.
“We live in a boarding school and wait every day. They have repeatedly said that they would pay our salary, but they have not even given a date,” said a worker in the video published on X.
In Nanning City in Guangxi, 32 construction workers camped outside Guangxi Power Transmission and Transformation Construction Co., Ltd. Since May 16, demanding their salary.
A video published by the user X “ `@YesterDaybigcat '', an important source of information on demonstrations in China, showed that demonstrators were preparing a fire and cooking in large woks at the entrance to the company, suggesting that they were in the long term.
“Our work is hard and tiring … But our money has been delayed. Some workers have members of the sick family and are urgently waiting for money to save their lives,” said a worker, who was one of the demonstrators of a China Communications Construction Group project in the capital of Hebei province, Shijiazhuang, told RFA.
On May 18, the demonstrators maintained banners to demand the long -term wage arrears due to them. The same worker told RFA that the company had repeatedly promised to pay them their salary but that he did not do so.
The workers of the Qianlima embroidery factory in the city of Haimen in the coastal province of Jiangsu used the protest of their boss's house for two consecutive days this week, but have still not been paid, according to a video published by @yesterdaybigcat.
Detaler stability?
Although workers' protests and work disputes are not uncommon in China, publications on social networks indicate an increase in demonstrations between sectors such as education, health care and sanitation.
This adds to broader dissatisfaction with regard to the economic situation. Retail sales growth and industrial production slowed down in April. The American prices on Chinese products entered into force in March and increased to 145% in April, weighing on shipments and export activity. The respite occurred in May, after the two governments agreed with a sharp reduction in prices for 90 days to give time for talks.
Fu Linghui, spokesperson for the National Statistics Bureau, said this week that reduction in prices between China and the United States will be beneficial for bilateral trade and the world economy. He said that despite external uncertainties, the “fundamental aspects of the economy of improvement in China remain unchanged”.
But the basis of a sustained economic recovery must be “more consolidated” in China with the implementation of various macro policies, said FU.
“They (the demonstrators) are the most vulnerable group,” said Zhang, the retired teacher. “Once they are expressed, they will be deleted as” troublemakers “, but in fact they just want to survive.”
“In the past, migrant workers and workers have demanded wages, but now it was teachers, doctors and sanitation workers.
Several teachers who were employed on a contractual basis in the city at the Zaozhuang prefecture, in the southern Shandong province, said their salary was six months.
“Our monthly salary is only about 3,000 yuan (or US $ 416), and we have been experiencing money borrowed for six months,” said a primary school teacher.
Another teacher from the Shanxi province in northern China said that her school required the return of end -of -year premiums previously paid to staff since 2021, as well as part of the salary they received for activities after school.
These movements caused general dissatisfaction, said the teacher in an article on the Xiaohongshu social networking platform, known as Rednote.
Health and sanitation workers face similar problems.
A nurse from a public hospital in the northwest of the province of Gansu said that his monthly salary was only 1,300 yuan (or US $ 180) and that his performance bonus had not been paid for four months.
Published by Tenzin Pema and Mat Pennington.