Illegal Layoffs at Juzi Digital Technology Spark Employee Protests Nationwide; Rooftop Rally in Chongqing (July 13, 2026)
On July 13, employees of Juzi Digital Technology Co., Ltd.’s Chongqing branch gathered on the roof of the West Investment WORK Chongqing North Station Building in Yubei District, chanting slogans such as “Juduoduo, pay us back,” to protest the company’s illegal layoffs, wage arrears, and reduced severance standards.
Starting July 12, Juzi Keji began releasing branch-by-branch layoff and staff resettlement plans across the country. According to the announcements, the compensation offered by the company not only falls below the legally mandated “N+1” standard but also treats employees differently depending on region: the plans for Beijing and Shanghai state explicit severance of “0.5N,” while those for Dalian, Anshan, Jinan, Chongqing, Wuhan, and Changsha specify only “0.5 times base salary.” Calculated out, this leaves employees with just over 1,000 yuan in compensation — far below what Beijing and Shanghai employees are owed.
Regarding the unpaid June and July wages and separation compensation, Juzi Keji’s plans for Dalian, Anshan, Jinan, Chongqing, Wuhan, and Changsha state payment is scheduled for August 15. Whether Beijing and Shanghai employees’ wages will be paid on time, the company said, “depends on the status of incoming payments”; even for employees who accept the “0.5N” compensation plan, payment will be made in installments in October and November. In Shanghai, one employee with late-stage cancer — who depended on her salary and medical insurance just to keep up with treatment and daily life — has been left in a desperate situation as a result. Compounding her despair, the head of the Shanghai office has already left the country, and the company’s accounts are empty, leaving it a hollowed-out shell.
The announcement immediately triggered discontent among employees in multiple regions. Beyond the rooftop rally in Chongqing, employees elsewhere have also begun taking action, demanding the company apply a uniform “N+1” compensation standard, end differential treatment by region, and immediately settle all unpaid wages, compensation for unused annual leave, and other benefits owed for time worked.
In late June, because Juzi Keji’s affiliated platforms Jiuxiaohua, Juduoduo, and the related platform Yikoudai failed to deposit borrowers’ repayments into the designated repayment bank accounts, borrowers were wrongly flagged as delinquent by the system and subjected to debt collection. Hundreds of affected users had gathered at the company’s headquarters in Yingkou, Liaoning to protest; on June 29, Yingkou authorities announced they had opened a criminal investigation into related issues at Juzi Keji.
As of July 14, the situation continues to develop.
Bank in Jilin freezes company account for no reason; account unfrozen only after workers block entrance (July 13, 2026)
A branch of the Agricultural Bank of China in Yanji city, Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, Jilin province, froze a company’s corporate account without any given reason, leaving the company unable to pay its workers on time. On July 13, the company’s owner went to the bank to resolve the issue, but bank staff kept stalling for hours without resolving it, and demanded the company prove on its own that the funds in the account were legitimately obtained. It was only at midday, after the owner and workers blocked the bank’s entrance, that the branch manager finally stepped in and unfroze the account.
Disabled delivery rider in Guangdong’s Dianbai draws attention online, receives over 7,000 yuan in donations (July 13, 2026)
Recently, a food delivery rider who lost one leg in Dianbai district, Maoming city, Guangdong province, drew attention online after being forced to walk into residential complexes on crutches, hopping on one leg, to make deliveries, since e-bikes were banned from entering. On July 13, netizens from a Dianbai No. 1 High School alumni group donated over 7,000 yuan to him. According to reports, he had previously traveled from Xinjiang to Maoming to start a business, but was scammed, and has since relied on food delivery to make a living.
Construction workers in Yunnan’s Zhaotong detained by police while demanding unpaid wages (July 13, 2026)
On July 13, in Zhaoyang district, Zhaotong city, Yunnan province, construction workers went to demand wages owed to them on the Xiaolizi Garden resettlement housing project, built by Yunnan Construction Investment Holding Group. Instead, they were detained by police.
Hundreds of high school students in Hubei’s Anlu strike, march for “less authoritarianism, more equality” (July 10, 2026)
On July 10, hundreds of first-year students at Anlu No. 1 High School in Hubei province staged a collective protest after the school shortened their summer vacation from 20 days to just four and a half. Students chanted slogans such as “give us our long vacation,” held up sheets of white paper reading “vacation,” and marched around the campus behind a banner that read, “Less authoritarianism, more equality — give us back our 20-day summer vacation!” The school ultimately backed down under student pressure and canceled its summer tutoring plan.
Villagers in Hebei’s Sanhe protest homes being turned into a “flood diversion zone,” clash with officials (July 12, 2026)
On the evening of July 12, villagers from several villages, including Hougezhuang, in Huangzhuang township, Sanhe city, Langfang, Hebei province, gathered near a dike to protest authorities’ plan to use excavators to breach the riverbank and divert floodwaters into their homes. During the protest, villagers clashed with government officials on site. Hebei province has been hit by days of heavy rain and severe flooding, driven in part by this year’s Typhoon Bavi, the ninth named storm of the season. Over the years, villages across Hebei have repeatedly been used by authorities as flood diversion zones to “protect Beijing,” with residents often receiving minimal compensation, or none at all, after their homes and land were damaged.
“Little Luoxi” case update: Mother Deng Rongrong intercepted by local officials during disaster relief in Guangxi (July 11, 2026)
On July 11, Deng Rongrong, mother of “Little Luoxi,” was intercepted by local government personnel while taking part in disaster relief efforts in Hengxian County, Guangxi. She was ordered to remove a banner bearing the name Xu Luoxi from the vehicle carrying relief supplies. Deng and a friend accompanying her noticed that the official had just finished a phone call with Ningbo police. Deng later discovered that the banner on the vehicle had been torn apart.
Property staff at luxury Shenzhen complex rally for days over unpaid wages (July 6–7, 2026)
From July 6 to 7, property management staff at the Mangrove Bay (红树西岸) residential complex in Shenzhen’s Nanshan district held rallies for two consecutive days, demanding two months of unpaid wages from Baishida Property Management. Mangrove Bay is one of Shenzhen’s well-known luxury residential developments, with units selling for around 20 million yuan.
32-year-old mother dies after minimally invasive surgery in Hebei’s Xingtai; family seeks answers for days (July 7–10, 2026)
From July 7 to 10, the family of a woman who died after minimally invasive surgery held a sit-in in the lobby of Xingtai People’s Hospital in Hebei province for several consecutive days, demanding answers. According to the family, the deceased was a mother of two, a son and a daughter. She had been scheduled for a relatively routine minimally invasive surgery to remove an abdominal fibroid, but about 10 minutes after receiving anesthesia, her heart suddenly stopped. She was rushed to the ICU, where she died two days later.
In June 2026, the Yesterday Project published 46 collective protest incidents that occurred in China. Three landmark events drew the greatest attention during the month. The first was a nonviolent noncooperation movement in Heilongjiang that lasted for more than two months and involved over one million merchants, making it the largest protest documented by the Yesterday Project since its archive was established. The second was China’s first large-scale anti-animal-cruelty gathering, which broke out in Chongqing and was jointly initiated by netizens and animal-protection volunteers. The third took place in Hefei, Anhui, where more than 1,000 residents took to the streets and successfully forced the suspension of a large waste-transfer-station project.
In addition, labor disputes, clashes triggered by urban-management officers seizing vendors’ carts, and the continuing rights-defense campaign surrounding the medical-malpractice case of “Xiao Luoxi” in Ningbo, Zhejiang, formed three other major themes of protest during the month.
1. Composition of Protest Groups
Workers and other laborers: 11 incidents (23.9%)
Breakdown: factory workers, 5 incidents; sanitation workers, 1; office employees, 1; supermarket employees, 1; construction workers, 1; taxi drivers, 1; and students temporarily recruited to work as security guards, 1.
Homeowners and residents: 6 incidents (13.0%)
These included protests against forced demolitions, arbitrary property-management fees, former property-management companies refusing to leave residential compounds, the failure to issue property-ownership certificates, and proposed hazardous-laboratory and waste-transfer-station projects.
Farmers: 4 incidents (8.7%)
These mainly involved compulsory land expropriation and local authorities unilaterally changing villagers’ household-registration status in order to avoid distributing collective land rights and benefits.
Families of the deceased and related rights defenders: 5 incidents (10.9%)
These included medical-malpractice cases, the drowning of a minor while fleeing a fisheries-enforcement pursuit, and continuing rights-defense actions related to the “Xiao Luoxi” case in Ningbo.
Merchants and exhibitors: 4 incidents (8.7%)
These included the mass business shutdown involving more than one million merchants in Heilongjiang, a Guangzhou merchant using horses to transport goods, and two consecutive days of protests by exhibitors at a trade fair in Shenzhen.
Street vendors and onlookers: 4 incidents (8.7%)
All four incidents involved urban-management officers seizing, impounding, or towing away vendors’ food carts.
Animal-protection advocates and netizens: 2 incidents (4.3%)
These included a gathering of several thousand people against animal cruelty in Chongqing and a protest by a woman in Dongyang, Zhejiang, after her pet cat was tortured and killed.
Students: 2 incidents (4.3%)
These included a student being taken away by personnel from a so-called “compulsory correction school,” and several hundred graduating high-school students breaking through school restrictions to celebrate their graduation collectively.
Petitioners: 2 incidents (4.3%)
These included petitioners singing outside a public-security agency to denounce corruption, and resistance triggered when interception personnel forcibly dragged away a petitioner in public.
Other groups: 6 incidents (13.0%)
These involved policyholders, bank depositors, airline passengers, Christians, netizens, and other individual rights defenders.
2. Geographic Distribution
Guangdong: 12 incidents
Zhejiang: 7 incidents
Sichuan and Chongqing: 4 incidents each
Anhui, Hebei, Hunan, and Guizhou: 2 incidents each
Heilongjiang, Hubei, Hainan, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Gansu, Liaoning, and Beijing: 1 incident each
One additional incident occurred at a site connected to the Ministry of Public Security.
Guangdong and Zhejiang together accounted for 19 incidents, or 41.3% of all incidents published during the month. Incidents in Guangdong were mainly concentrated in Shenzhen, Dongguan, Yangjiang, Guangzhou, Qingyuan, Lufeng, and Shantou. Incidents in Zhejiang were concentrated mainly in Ningbo, with additional cases in Taizhou, Hangzhou, and Dongyang.
3. Distribution of Causes
Unpaid wages, low pay, and other labor disputes: 10 incidents (21.7%)
These included unpaid wages, 5 incidents; excessively low wages, 2; layoffs without compensation, 1; wage deductions and unfair compensation, 1; and unpaid wages and social-insurance contributions combined with refusal to repay employee investment funds, 1.
Land, housing, and community-governance disputes: 9 incidents (19.6%)
These included compulsory land expropriation, 3 incidents; forced demolition, 1; arbitrary property-management charges or refusal by former property managers to withdraw, 2; prolonged failure to issue property-ownership certificates, 1; unilateral changes to villagers’ household-registration status to avoid distributing land-related rights, 1; and the proposed construction of a hazardous laboratory near residential neighborhoods, 1.
Medical malpractice and related rights-defense actions: 5 incidents (10.9%)
These included families of deceased patients being suppressed by police while seeking accountability at hospitals, as well as incidents in which relatives and supporters connected to the “Xiao Luoxi” case in Ningbo were summoned, disappeared from public contact, or subjected to pressure.
Urban-management officers seizing or impounding food carts: 4 incidents (8.7%)
In Chengdu, Haikou, Ningbo, and Yangjiang, vendors climbed onto their food carts to prevent urban-management officers from towing them away. Several of these incidents attracted hundreds of onlookers who expressed support.
Animal cruelty: 2 incidents (4.3%)
These included the large-scale anti-animal-cruelty gathering in Chongqing and a public protest inside a residential compound in Dongyang, Zhejiang, after a pet cat was tortured and killed.
False promotion by trade fairs: 2 incidents (4.3%)
A cross-border e-commerce exhibition in Shenzhen was accused of attracting far fewer buyers than advertised and even hiring people to pose as purchasers. Hundreds of exhibitors demanded refunds for two consecutive days, and some angry merchants later smashed exhibits.
Environmental and waste projects: 2 incidents (4.3%)
These included Wuhan residents opposing the establishment of a hazardous-waste laboratory and more than 1,000 Hefei residents marching to force the suspension of a large waste-transfer-station project.
Other causes: 12 incidents (26.1%)
These included arbitrary inspections and fines by government agencies, restrictions on religious practice and memorial activities, disputes over insurance-policy cancellation, compulsory airline charges, bank deposits being converted into insurance products, restrictions on merchants’ transport tools, conflicts over student management, interception of petitioners, and deaths caused by law-enforcement pursuits.
4. Scale of Incidents
1–9 participants: 13 incidents (28.3%)
10–99 participants: 11 incidents (23.9%)
100–999 participants: 17 incidents (37.0%)
1,000–9,999 participants: 4 incidents (8.7%)
More than one million participants: 1 incident (2.2%)
A total of 22 incidents involved at least 100 participants, accounting for 47.8% of all incidents. The Heilongjiang merchants’ shutdown involved more than one million participants and was the largest protest of the month. The Chongqing anti-animal-cruelty gathering, the employee protest at Wanwei Education in Xi’an, the wage protest by workers at Liansheng in Jiujiang, and the anti-waste-project march in Hefei each involved more than 1,000 participants.
5. Police Repression
Police present: 20 incidents, or approximately 43.5%
Clear incidents of violent repression or arrest: 10 incidents, or approximately 21.7% of all incidents
Among the 20 incidents in which police were present, 10 involved beatings, pepper spray, forcible dragging, arrests, or the removal of rights defenders. This means that repression or arrests occurred in half of all incidents attended by police.
Typical cases included the following: police in Xingtai, Hebei, used pepper spray against the family of a medical-malpractice victim seeking accountability; villagers in Taizhou, Zhejiang, opposing compulsory land expropriation were beaten by police; after a teenager drowned in Chongqing, family members and residents who marched in protest were suppressed by police; participants in the Chongqing anti-animal-cruelty gathering were arrested and placed under continuing surveillance; several Wuhan residents opposing a hazardous-waste laboratory were arrested; police raided a worship service at Chengdu’s Early Rain Covenant Church and took away several church members and children; hundreds of homeowners in Chengdu blocked a road, after which multiple people were beaten and arrested; the anti-waste-project march in Hefei briefly developed into clashes with police; homeowners in Chenzhou, Hunan, demanding property-ownership certificates were violently dragged away by police; and villagers in Shantou, Guangdong, were suppressed while occupying the village committee office and surrounding local officials.
