Markor Home Furnishings Refuses Compensation Upon Factory Closure; Days of Protests by Thousands of Employees Yield No Results (January 6, 2026)
On January 6, following the announcement by the renowned Chinese furniture brand Markor Home Furnishings (Markor) that it would close its Tianjin base, a protest launched by over a thousand desperate workers entered its sixth day. According to workers, Markor not only has no intention of paying previously owed wages but is also attempting to “renege” on statutory severance compensation.
Public records show that this veteran enterprise, established in 1990 and headquartered in Urumqi, once spent heavily to acquire multiple international brands, including the American company Schnadig. It was once synonymous with high-end domestic furniture. However, since 2022, under the successive blows of the pandemic, the trade war, and the collapse of the real estate market, this listed company’s performance has declined rapidly. It has accumulated losses exceeding 1.6 billion RMB over three consecutive years, with its operating conditions continuing to deteriorate.
Starting in 2024, Markor Home Furnishings began to delay wage payments. Entering 2025, the issue of wage arrears worsened, with employees being owed wages for as long as five to eight months. In the second half of 2025, Markor’s production bases in Ganzhou, Jiangxi, and Tianjin both experienced large-scale protests by employees demanding their unpaid wages.
What the workers did not expect was that upon entering 2026, what awaited them was not their wages, but Markor’s announcement that it was closing the factory and refusing compensation. According to employees, the company recently proposed extremely unreasonable conditions: employees must either sign an agreement to leave based on a standard of “frontline workers receiving only 80% of arrears, and support staff receiving 60%,” or face eviction on January 15, as the company plans to reclaim the dormitories on that date.
Currently, the workers’ rights defense actions are continuing. Referencing previous rights defense cases such as Yilisheng in Shenzhen, Guangdong, and Changrong Toys in Dongguan, Chinese-funded enterprises have universally adopted a “deadbeat” mode of “layoffs without compensation.” Meanwhile, authorities, motivated by interests and “stability maintenance” considerations, often side with capital in these disputes and suppress the workers. Consequently, it is evident that the workers’ path to defending their rights will be exceptionally difficult.
Top 10 Collective Protest Incidents in China in 2025: A Tribute to the Unsung Heroes
Bidding farewell to the stifled silence of 2024, 2025 witnessed a gradual resurgence of civil resistance in China. From farmers and workers fighting for survival, to students and parents fighting for dignity, to netizens standing up against injustice faced by others, increasingly more people chose to confront their fear and refuse silence. In this year, anger was no longer an atomized whisper. On the internet, tens of millions of “Digital Moms” relayed the call for justice for “Little Luoxi”; in Pucheng, Shaanxi, tens of thousands of citizens took to the streets for a student they never knew; on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, farmers resolutely demanded to “Dig up Xi Jinping’s ancestral grave first”; and in Jiangyou, Sichuan, protesters shouted a rare political slogan: “Give us back democracy.”
The following are the Top 10 Collective Protest Incidents in China in 2025, selected by the “Yesterday” Project:
10. Parents’ Rights Defense in Tianshui Kindergarten Poisoning Case
Time: July 1 – July 20, 2025 | Location: Maiji District, Tianshui, Gansu
This was a “man-made disaster” driven by profit and devoid of humanity. To enhance the appearance of their food to attract enrollment, the Heshipeixin Kindergarten in Maiji District, Tianshui, knowingly added toxic industrial pigments to the children’s meals over a long period, causing lead poisoning in over two hundred toddlers. Even more shocking was that the test data from the local CDC severely contradicted results from authoritative hospitals elsewhere. Parents, exhausted from traveling everywhere to seek medical help, painfully discovered that public power was attempting to cover up the truth to maintain “stability.”
On July 20, 2025, facing “bullying clauses” forced upon them by the government and the violent beating of their representatives by police, a large group of desperate parents took to the streets, blocking the city’s main arteries. Although the protest was ultimately suppressed, it was the parents’ persistence that allowed more people to glimpse the bottomless black curtain of food safety in China through this incident.
9. Changsha Delivery Riders United Demonstration Against Discrimination
Time: December 22 – December 23, 2025 | Location: Changsha, Hunan
On December 22, 2025, the Heneng Puli residential compound in Changsha issued discriminatory entry regulations and verbally abused a rider during a conflict, ultimately detonating the collective anger of the delivery workforce. Hundreds of riders quickly assembled, blocking the compound’s gates for over ten hours demanding an apology from the involved homeowner. In the early hours of the next day, fearless of the hundreds of police officers on site, the riders staged a motorcycle demonstration through the urban area for several hours. During the procession, some riders even wore yellow robes and crowns as a symbolic gesture. The ending was dramatic: riders from major delivery platforms collectively “blacklisted” the compound, leaving all residents unable to order food, effectively executing a counter-measure against class discrimination.
8. Battle Between Street Vendors and Chengguan in Kunming
Time: September 27 – September 28, 2025 | Location: Guandu District, Kunming, Yunnan
In the midst of an economic winter, for the vendors at the Kunming Haile World Night Market, their small stalls were their families’ last rice bowls. However, the local government repeatedly tormented them within a wealth-extracting loop of “Rectification—Investment invitation—Fee collection.” The vendors were not only frequently harvested for fees but also faced violent eviction by Chengguan (Urban Management).
On the night of September 27, vendors pushed to the brink erupted. Facing hundreds of fully armed Chengguan and police officers, they fought back using whatever tableware, tables, and chairs were at hand. With “pots and pans flying everywhere,” the chaotic battle lasted for a full six hours. This was not just a conflict against arbitrary fees, but a desperate struggle by the underclass to defend their right to survival against predatory urban management in the backdrop of an economic depression.
7. Thousands of Farmers in Qiongzhong Siege “Hainan Rubber Group”
Time: October 31, 2025 | Location: Qiongzhong, Hainan
Facing the bullying behavior of the state-owned Hainan Rubber Group, which forcibly claimed land ownership and barbarically cut down thousands of betel nut trees planted by villagers, the residents of Nabai Village in Qiongzhong chose not to swallow the insult.
On October 31, 2025, over a thousand villagers launched a “Down with Hainan Rubber Group” campaign, besieging the farm and smashing multiple company sedans and facilities. This action triggered resonance across the island, with young people from various regions driving in to support them. Facing such a fierce backlash, the Hainan Rubber Group finally compromised, paying 588,600 RMB in compensation and 100,000 RMB in replanting funds. This was a rare case this year where citizens achieved a substantive victory through radical resistance, brutally proving that in the face of authoritarian power, weakness is only swallowed, and only resistance offers a sliver of hope.
6. Shenzhen Yilisheng 3,000-Worker Strike Against Disguised Layoffs
Time: December 4 – December 12, 2025 | Location: Shenzhen, Guangdong
After being acquired and shifting production capacity, the well-known electronics factory Yilisheng used a “five days, eight hours ultra-low wage” schedule as a “soft knife,” causing workers’ income to plummet to less than 2,000 RMB, in an attempt to force old employees to resign voluntarily to evade N+1 severance pay. The Labor Law, originally meant to protect workers, became a “legal” weapon for purging them when combined with ultra-low base pay by the management.
3,000 workers launched an 8-day general strike in response. During this period, the workers displayed a high degree of organization. On the night of December 10, 2025, a scene rarely seen in past labor disputes occurred: facing a large number of stability-maintenance police, hundreds of workers surrounded the factory gates to apply pressure, successfully forcing the police to release their arrested companions. Although they were eventually forced to return to work under the dual strangulation of capital and the state apparatus, the resilience and unity shown by these protesters—predominantly women—revealed the astonishing power of Chinese workers erupting in desperate circumstances.
5. Farmers’ Anti-Forced Cremation Movement in Yun-Gui Plateau
Time: November – December 2025 | Location: Zhenxiong (Yunnan), Xifeng (Guizhou), Zunyi, etc.
To generate revenue through funeral reform, local governments in Yunnan and Guizhou enforced a “one-size-fits-all” cremation policy, even committing evil acts such as secretly digging up corpses for forced cremation, which thoroughly ignited the anger of local farmers. In early November 2025, thousands of farmers in Zhongtun Town, Zhenxiong County, Yunnan, broke through roadblocks manned by government personnel and defied the burial ban, sparking a prairie fire of resistance. In Xifeng, Guizhou, angry farmers shouted the slogan “Dig up Xi Jinping’s ancestral grave first,” surrounded the county magistrate, and forced officials to kneel and beg for mercy, expressing a shocking contempt for authority. In Zheng’an, Zunyi, 2,000 farmers formed a “burial protection squad” and successfully repelled the government’s “body-snatching squad,” drawing a perfect conclusion to this large-scale peasant movement spanning two provinces and three cities, causing the forced cremation policy in these areas to collapse.
4. “Digital Moms” Help Ningbo’s “Little Luoxi” Fight Medical Black Curtain
Time: November – December 2025 | Location: Across China and the Internet
To meet surgery quota KPIs, a doctor at Ningbo Women and Children’s Hospital fabricated a medical condition, pushing 5-month-old baby girl “Little Luoxi” into an unnecessary, high-risk thoracic surgery, resulting in her tragic death on the operating table with her body nearly drained of blood. Afterward, her mother, Ms. Deng, was beaten while seeking justice and was stigmatized by an internet “water army” organized by the hospital.
This tragedy triggered a phenomenal online resistance. After the autopsy report was released, tens of millions of netizens transformed into “Digital Moms,” launching a public opinion war against public power censorship and smears. They stuck slogans on their cars and handbags, letting the story of Little Luoxi spread across China; they relayed posts online, letting the “Wind of Ningbo” blow across the world. They elevated what could have been a “harmonized” (censored) medical accident to the height of national accountability, ultimately forcing officials to stop feigning deafness.
3. Thousands of Students and Parents Smash School in Xuchang No. 6 Middle School
Time: May 23 – May 25, 2025 | Location: Xuchang, Henan
On May 23, 2025, Wu Yijia, a 13-year-old girl at Xuchang No. 6 Middle School, jumped from the 16th floor, unable to endure long-term insulting corporal punishment and isolation by her homeroom teacher. Facing the loss of a vibrant life, the school and the involved teacher not only refused to take responsibility but showed extreme indifference, even blaming her original family. This arrogance thoroughly detonated public anger.
On May 25, thousands of students, parents, and citizens surrounded the school. The young students displayed astonishing capacity for action; they spray-painted the shocking phrase “Blood Debt Paid in Blood” on school walls, scattered leaflets, threw debris, and smashed windows. The authorities immediately deployed SWAT teams and used pepper spray to violently clear the scene. Although Wu Yijia’s father was forced to “calm the situation” under high official pressure, the sentence from students online—”Baby, we got justice for you”—has become the best footnote for a young generation that fears no power and would rather break than bend.
2. Student Death in Pucheng Sparks Protest of Tens of Thousands
Time: January 2 – January 6, 2025 | Location: Pucheng County, Weinan, Shaanxi
On January 2, 2025, Dang Changxin, a student at the Pucheng Vocational Education Center, tragically fell to his death. The school quickly labeled it a “fall from height” (suicide/accident), confiscated phones, and put the family under house arrest, triggering strong public dissatisfaction. On the night of January 5, the conflict completely intensified after police beat and forcibly arrested the deceased’s uncle, escalating the event into a massive demonstration. On the 6th, tens of thousands of angry citizens took to the streets, breaking through the gates into the campus and smashing some school facilities. During the event, protesters bravely confronted large numbers of stability-maintenance police, engaging in fierce clashes, with several students suffering frantic beatings by police. This was the largest scale protest of 2025, raising the curtain on the year’s civil resistance.
1. Thousands in Jiangyou Demonstrate Against Bullying
Time: July 22 – August 4, 2025 | Location: Jiangyou, Sichuan
This was originally a vile case of bullying against a minor where three perpetrators used cruel methods, yet the police classified it as “minor injury” and treated it lightly, quickly sparking strong social resentment. On August 4, 2025, thousands of citizens took to the streets to seek justice for the victimized girl, only to face two rounds of violent suppression by large numbers of police. Facing the police, the protesting crowd did not retreat; instead, they shouted the slogan “Return our Democracy.” It marked that the public’s demands had risen from dissatisfaction with a single judicial case to reflection on and challenge to the entire political system, making it a landmark moment in China’s collective resistance in 2025.
Tribute to the Unsung Heroes
They are not born warriors; they are just ordinary people. But when they stood up for themselves and others, they demonstrated astonishing courage. The names of the vast majority of them will never be known; many are paying a painful price for this, perhaps currently enduring long imprisonment and loneliness. But it is these nameless people who, with their own freedom and blood and tears, smashed a crack in the Iron Curtain, letting in a faint but real light.
Two Years Without Pay: Hundreds of Pilots and Flight Attendants in Xi’an Stage Sustained Rights Protests (2025.12.29–31)
From December 29 to 31, 2025, hundreds of pilots and cabin crew gathered for several consecutive days at locations including the Shaanxi provincial government, demanding solutions to long-overdue wage arrears and unpaid social security benefits. All participants are employees of the same company—Joy Air.
According to employees, Joy Air has failed to pay regular wages to more than a thousand frontline staff for two consecutive years, and pilots’ hourly flight pay has also been withheld for prolonged periods. In addition, the company has not made legally required contributions to medical insurance, social insurance, or the housing provident fund for nearly four years. To sustain a basic livelihood, many pilots have been forced to change professions—delivering food, driving ride-hailing vehicles, or working as private tutors; some have even gone abroad to take up manual labor such as construction, renovation, or courier work. Cabin crew members, meanwhile, often rely on street vending or livestream e-commerce to get by. The stark gap between their current incomes and their professional identities has left many employees deeply disheartened. What has further fueled resentment is that, despite prolonged wage arrears and a complete suspension of operations, company executives have continued to receive salaries.
Founded in 2008 as a joint venture between the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) and China Eastern Airlines, Joy Air is headquartered in Xi’an, Shaanxi. It was positioned as a demonstration operator for domestically produced regional aircraft, with the MA60 as its core fleet. In late April 2025, Joy Air abruptly suspended all flights and has yet to resume operations. Data from Tianyancha show that between January and April 2025 alone, the company was listed as a judgment debtor eight times, with the largest single enforcement claim reaching RMB 124 million. Based on information from multiple sources, Joy Air’s total liabilities are currently estimated at around RMB 5 billion.
In the past, “domestically produced aircraft” was Joy Air’s core selling point. Today, however, it has come to be viewed as the “culprit” behind the crisis. As operations collapsed, senior management shifted blame to the very aircraft model on which the airline was founded, claiming that the MA60 suffers from “inherent deficiencies.” Many employees disagree, arguing that long-standing governance failures, opaque use of funds, and flawed management decisions are the true root causes of the company’s predicament.
In September 2025, company management promised employees that if no new investor could be introduced by the end of the year, the local government would provide a financial backstop. That expectation quickly fell apart. In December 2025, senior executives made it clear that “the government will not step in,” and for the first time publicly raised the possibility that the company could enter “bankruptcy liquidation.” Previous commitments were shelved, and as the New Year arrived, employees’ last hopes for the company’s future were completely shattered.
Hainan Government Seizes Land for Port Expansion: New Customs Operations Fail to Mask CCP’s “Bandit Nature” (Dec 24, 2025)
On December 24, 2025, just seven days after the official launch of Hainan’s island-wide “independent customs operations,” a scene of state-directed land seizure quietly unfolded under the cover of night. This occurred on an island that CCP propaganda has painted as a future global logistics hub and world-renowned financial center.
That night, in Yangpu Port—designated as the core functional area of the Hainan Free Trade Port and an international shipping hub—a forced requisition team comprising hundreds of police officers and government personnel stormed Ganchong Fishing Port. There, they forcibly seized the ancient pier and beaches that local villagers have relied on for generations.
Public documents from the Danzhou Municipal Government reveal that the land acquisition sparking this conflict is intended for the construction of a General Purpose Wharf in the Shentou Port Area’s new operational zone. However, due to excessively low compensation standards, the plan met with unanimous resistance from the villagers. In the days leading up to the seizure, villagers had organized rotating shifts to guard the beach day and night in an attempt to block the advance of engineering machinery.
Yet, in the face of the colossal state apparatus, the villagers’ individual strength proved too fragile. Leaked video footage shows that, in a desperate bid to defend their final living space, villagers engaged in a fierce struggle with the fully armed requisition team. Ultimately, their defensive line collapsed, and the land was lost.
In stark contrast to the violent conflict on the ground, relevant protest videos and pleas for help were swiftly wiped from the simplified Chinese internet. Cloaked under the grand narrative of a “major national strategy,” this act of robbery seemed as if it had never happened.
A local fisherman expressed his grief and anger: “What Free Trade Port? I haven’t seen any substantive change for the common people yet. This so-called Free Trade Port is built upon the displacement of the local population.”
The Hainan Free Trade Port is a major national strategy “personally planned, personally deployed, and personally promoted” by Xi Jinping. The authorities have vowed to build it into a special zone defined by the “rule of law, internationalization, and facilitation.” However, ironically, just one week after the official launch of this grand blueprint’s customs operations, the CCP’s true “bandit nature” has been revealed without a doubt.
Delivery Riders in Zigong, Sichuan Protest Street Blockade and Dismantle Barriers (December 29, 2025)
On Monday (December 29), protests by delivery riders erupted once again in southern China. In Zigong, Sichuan, hundreds of delivery workers, dissatisfied with road closures imposed by property management, collectively blocked streets and dismantled the barriers set up by the management. This marks another collective rights-defense incident triggered by access control issues, following a similar protest in Changsha last week.
According to eyewitnesses and online reports, the conflict stemmed from a sudden decision by the property management of Huashang International City in Ziliujing District, Zigong. On that day, management suddenly used iron barricades to seal off several main entrances to the commercial district to prevent electric motorcycles from entering. As Huashang International City houses numerous catering merchants and is a crucial source of local delivery orders, the move immediately sparked intense dissatisfaction among the riders.
For the riders, the impact of the road closure is devastating. “If we have to walk in to pick up meals, the order will already be overdue by the time we finish the first one,” one rider stated helplessly.
Footage circulating online shows that on the night of the incident, approximately one hundred delivery riders from various platforms gathered at the intersection, with some nearby business owners and passersby stopping to watch. Multiple police officers were on guard at the scene, though no physical clashes were observed. The iron barricades that had originally blocked the road were seen pushed to the ground.
In recent years, delivery platforms have used algorithms to constantly test limits and compress delivery times to the extreme. However, lacking a labor union, riders are unable to negotiate with the platforms and are forced to race against the clock for meager income. In the past, attempts were made to establish a cross-regional alliance and mutual aid network for this massive labor force. Around 2019, delivery rider Chen Guojiang, known as the “Alliance Leader,” initiated the “Delivery Knights Alliance,” attempting to use organized methods to improve riders’ bargaining power against platform rules. However, this endeavor ultimately ended with Chen Guojiang’s arrest and imprisonment.
Today, for this oppressed group, any additional resistance from outside the platform system—whether it be road closures by property management or insults from merchants—can easily become the straw that breaks the camel’s back, instantly igniting long-suppressed anger.
Aftermath of the “Zhejin” Collapse: Days of Fruitless Appeals, Thousands of Investors Break Down in Despair (2025.12.13–27)
Despite having been suppressed by police on December 12, the rights-defense actions of investors from Zhejiang Zhejin Center have continued with great difficulty. Over the following half month, thousands of investors repeatedly gathered at the Zhejin Center’s office and other locations in Shangcheng District, Hangzhou, demanding the return of their hard-earned money. At the protest site on December 25, several more investors were reportedly detained.
According to recent reports by multiple Chinese media outlets, Yu Faxiang, chairman of Xiangyuan Holding Group—who just two months earlier ranked on the Hurun Rich List with an estimated net worth of 14.5 billion yuan—was placed under criminal coercive measures by Shaoxing police on December 12. Those taken into custody alongside him include Ding Jianlin, chairman of Zhejin Center, and a total of 18 core figures implicated in the case.
However, judging from the outcomes of similar cases in the past, the detention of the principal figures does not necessarily mean that funds can be successfully recovered. Although the special task force has frozen more than 1,100 properties and a large amount of equity under the Xiangyuan group, these assets are little more than a drop in the bucket when faced with the enormous funding gap. On the contrary, multiple signs suggest that investors’ funds may ultimately be completely wiped out.
Rumors circulating among the public are even more alarming. One unverified claim suggests that if off-balance-sheet liabilities and various forms of hidden leverage are included, the actual amount involved in the case could exceed 50 billion yuan. Some commentators have compared the incident to a “Zhejiang version of E-Zubao,” arguing that it has dealt a devastating blow to local private wealth—particularly to small private business owners and the pension savings of middle-aged and elderly groups.
Over the past month, although the number of investors participating in rights-defense actions has continued to grow, the collective mood has become increasingly desperate. At a gathering on December 26, many investors suffered emotional breakdowns: loud crying and wailing filled the scene, and some screamed in despair, “Heavens, please help me!” The scene was harrowing.
Dongguan Toy Manufacturing Giant Shuts Down; Workers Receive Only “0.5N” Compensation After Road Blockade Protest (2025.12.14–23)
On December 22, in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, hundreds of workers from Changrong Toy Factory finally received an outcome after nearly ten days of sustained collective action. The compensation offered by this once world-renowned toy manufacturer amounted to only half of the statutory standard stipulated by China’s Labor Law—commonly referred to as “0.5N.”
Founded in 1998, Changrong Toy Factory is one of nine subsidiaries under Hong Kong–based Wah Sing Toys Group. At its peak, Changrong employed as many as 15,000 workers and was a well-known large-scale toy manufacturer. By the time of the incident, however, the number of employees still working at the factory had dwindled to just over one thousand.
According to workers, Changrong Toys began by dismissing all temporary workers in early December. On December 14, without providing any clear explanation, the company attempted to move part of its production equipment out of the factory, triggering strong dissatisfaction among workers. Believing this to be a sign that the company was preparing to flee, workers intercepted the transport vehicles. Events soon confirmed their suspicions. On December 15, the factory officially announced the indefinite implementation of a “five days, eight hours” work schedule, seeking to sharply reduce workers’ income and force them to resign voluntarily. Despite continued protests, Changrong Toys did not reverse the decision. Instead, on December 22, it further announced a two-month shutdown. This move completely ignited pent-up anger, prompting hundreds of workers to leave the factory grounds and block traffic on the road in front of the plant.
Although the road-blocking workers were quickly dispersed by large numbers of police, the action also compelled the local government to intervene in negotiations. Ultimately, under official “coordination,” Changrong Toys agreed to compensate workers at the “0.5N” standard.
The irony is striking: even such a discounted outcome was regarded by workers as a form of “success.” In a reality where the law has been reduced to a mere formality, trade unions remain absent, and authorities often side with capital to suppress workers’ demands, securing tens of thousands of yuan in actual cash compensation is no small feat. Compared with workers at Yilisheng and Seagull Housing Works, whose earlier rights-defense efforts ended in failure, this result can indeed—by comparison—be considered a “success.”
“Forced Land Expropriation for a High-Speed Rail Project in Xi’an, Shaanxi Triggers Violent Clash, Leaving Two Burned (2025.12.17)”
On December 17, a violent confrontation broke out during land expropriation related to the Xi’an–Yan’an High-Speed Rail project in Shaanxi Province, resulting in injuries to two people. The incident occurred in Dongtang Group, Chunshu Village, Xiquan Subdistrict, Lintong District, Xi’an. On the same day, local authorities deployed a large number of personnel to carry out forced land seizures and assaulted villagers who resisted. During the confrontation, one villager fought back using gasoline, burning a member of the expropriation team, while also suffering injuries himself.
Documentary: “The Anti-Discrimination Protest by Food Delivery Riders in Changsha, Hunan”
From December 22 to 23, a protest broke out in Changsha, Hunan Province, triggered by a property owner verbally abusing a delivery rider. Hundreds of food delivery riders blockaded the entrance of a residential compound for more than ten hours and carried out prolonged demonstrations across the city.
