Protests of workers demanding wages spread through China as a sign of growing dissatisfaction among millions of people with the weight of factory closings, triggered by growing American prices on Chinese imports in the middle of an economic slowdown.
Across the country – from Hunan Province’s Dao County in Central China to Sichuan’s SUining City in the Southwest and Inner Mongolia’s Tongliao City to the Northeast – Hundreds of Disgruntled Workers have Take Take to the Streets to Protest About Unpaid Wages and To To Challenge Unfair factories that were forced to shut due to the us tariffs.
“Strike! Strike!” Shouts workers outside a Shangda Electronics factory in Suining City on Sunday, in a video of the demonstration published on social networks by the user X @yesterdaybigcat “, a leading source of information on demonstrations in China.
The workers said that the company of which Sichuan is adapted, which manufactures flexible printed circuits, had not paid salaries since the start of the year and social security services for almost two years – since June 2023.
Analysts of the investment bank based in the United States Goldman Sachs estimated that at least 16 million jobs, in all industries, in China, are in danger due to the taxation by US President Donald Trump of a 145% rate on Chinese imports.
They expect the Trump administration’s pricing increases “will not weigh considerably on the Chinese economy”, with slower economic growth likely to put pressure on the country’s labor market, especially in the export sectors.
In the Chinese manufacturing industry, the communication equipment sector is likely to lose the most jobs, followed by clothing and chemical sectors, Goldman analysts, including Xinquan Chen and Lisheng Wang, wrote in a note to customers on Sunday.
Earlier this week, more than a dozen migrant workers in the village of Tuanjie in the city at the Xi’an prefecture in the Chinese province of northwest of Shaanxi have complained in a local project department, saying that they had not received their salary since February 2025.
Last week, April 24, hundreds of workers from Guangxin Sports Goods in the County of Dao were on strike after the closure of the company factory without paying their compensation or their social security services.
The workers of the company factory, which produce sports protective equipment and related accessories, said that Guangxin Sports have unjustly rejected more than 100 employees, over the age of 50, in September 2024 to “reach the retirement age”, without paying their salary or guide them on retirement procedures.
When Radio Free Asia contacted Guangxin for a comment, a male employee of the company immediately hung up the phone by hearing the word “journalist”. The Dao County Labor and Social Security Office told RFA that “Guangxin still has dozens of operating employees”.
Elsewhere in interior Mongolia, many construction workers gathered on the roofs of the Jincan royal garden community in the city of Tongliao on April 25 where they threatened to jump from the building if they were not paid back wages, another video published on the same X account showed.
Economic pressures
Experts say that the growing number of workers in China reflect the current mismanagement crisis in certain Chinese companies and report economic problems for the country in the midst of trade with the United States.
Beijing -based activist JI Feng, who was one of the leaders of the Tiananmen Square 1989 demonstrations, said many owners of Chinese companies whom he had met recently complained about the difficulties they face, including the lack of commercial activity and funds.
“Some bosses have even said they prefer to go to prison to do anything,” JI told RFA.
“As long as there is a demonstration (by workers), the company must find a way to borrow money to pay wages. For example, if wages are late for three months, they must be paid monthly even if they need to borrow money. If they cannot be paid in time, the government can stop people (employers),” said JI.
However, he noted that workers’ protests are not a new phenomenon, these increasing after the pandemic while the economic environment of China has deteriorated.
According to China dissenting Monitor of China Dissentment from Freedom House, based in the United States, the majority of demonstrations followed in China during the third quarter of 2024 were led by workers, who represented 41% of the events of dissent in person and online in the country.
About three -quarters of all the demonstrations recorded in China were linked to economic grievances, including workers demanding unpaid wages, owners confronted with standing housing projects and rural conflicts linked to land confiscation, said Freedom House.
Published by Tenzin Pema and Mat Pennington.