Between March 11 and 13, a large number of shops near Gutan Street and the Hongxin Building on Xihu Road in Tianxin District, Changsha, Hunan Province, were vandalized by unidentified individuals for failing to ‘cooperate’ with demolition efforts. According to the shop owners, they refused to relocate because their leases had not yet expired, and some had even just recently finished renovating their stores.
“Beijing activist Quan Shixin decries the CCP for seizing her legal property in front of the Beijing Public Complaints Bureau (2026.03.11).” In 2023, Beijing activist Quan Shixin was sentenced to two years and nine months in prison on trumped-up charges for accepting interviews with overseas media. While in prison, she conducted a hunger strike in protest and was subjected to forced feeding. During her detention, the CCP forcibly demolished her only residence.
Workers Protest After Losing Jobs Without Compensation at Four Factories in Guangdong, Fujian, and Zhejiang (Mar 1–9, 2026)
In early March, shortly after the Lunar New Year holiday ended, several manufacturing factories in China announced closures. Among them, four companies located in Guangdong, Zhejiang, and Fujian triggered days of worker protests after failing to provide compensation in accordance with China’s Labor Law. The four factories involved are as follows:
At Sihui Jinye Textile Dyeing & Finishing Co., Ltd. in Sihui, Guangdong, hundreds of workers who returned after the Lunar New Year holiday discovered that the company had moved its equipment away during the holiday period. This sparked continuous protests from March 1 to March 3, as workers demanded compensation.
At Putian Qiming Footwear Co., Ltd. in Putian, Fujian, employees returning from the Lunar New Year holiday found that the company had no intention of resuming production and even prohibited workers from staying in the dormitories. From March 5 to March 9, angry workers staged several consecutive days of collective protests, blocking the factory gate to prevent vehicles from removing equipment. According to workers, the company has already relocated the factory overseas.
A factory of Jiangnan Buyi Co., Ltd. located in the Xiaoshan industrial zone of Hangzhou, Zhejiang, announced its closure but refused to compensate workers. On March 5, workers organized collective protests demanding compensation.
Biel Crystal (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. in Shenzhen, Guangdong shut down and laid off workers due to a lack of orders, but refused to provide compensation in accordance with China’s Labor Law. This triggered four consecutive days of worker protests from March 5 to March 8, as employees demanded lawful compensation. Workers reported that under the company’s proposed compensation plan, ordinary employees would receive only “0.4N” in severance pay. Public records show that Biel Crystal (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. is a subsidiary of Biel Crystal (China) Co., Ltd., a Hong Kong-funded enterprise, primarily engaged in the research, development, and production of precision optical glass lenses, sapphire glass, and related products.
Over the past two years, under the combined pressures of economic slowdown, shrinking export orders, and the relocation of industrial supply chains, many small and medium-sized factories across China have suspended operations or gone bankrupt. When it comes to worker compensation, companies of different backgrounds have shown starkly different responses. Foreign-funded enterprises generally follow the “N+1” compensation standard—or even higher—when closing or relocating operations. By contrast, many domestic Chinese companies and some Hong Kong-funded firms often offer compensation below the legal standard, and in some cases simply disappear without paying workers at all. This widespread failure to provide proper compensation has left large numbers of unemployed workers not only without livelihoods, but also trapped in difficult struggles to defend their rights.
On March 12, at Chuanwei Beach in Shangnan Village, Jingdu Town, Chaonan District, Shantou City, Guangdong Province, aquaculture farmers lay and sat in front of excavator tracks to stop the local government from forcibly demolishing their shrimp ponds. According to the people involved, due to a government development project, the Chuanwei Beach Hechuang Park unilaterally terminated the contracts with the farmers before their expiration and refused to pay compensation, despite the fact that there are still 600,000 catties (300 metric tons) of shrimp in the ponds waiting to be sold.
From March 6 to 12, hundreds of workers at Meiyi Garment Co., Ltd. in Panyu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong held a strike for several consecutive days, protesting the company’s failure to pay social security contributions for four consecutive months.
On March 10, after a patient died following treatment at Lixing Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital in Tongxu County, Kaifeng, Henan, the family of the deceased went to the hospital to demand an explanation and burn joss paper. Judging from the comments section, this hospital appears to have a notorious track record of wrongdoing.
In Zhaoyang District, Zhaotong City, Yunnan Province, when houses in communities like Yunhu Tianjing and Sunac Jiutangfu were struggling the most to sell, the local government announced that buying a property would guarantee enrollment at Shenggeng School. However, after the houses were mostly sold out, they claimed the school lacked sufficient classrooms and redirected students to attend Taoyuan Primary School. On March 9, hundreds of parents gathered at the school to protest.
On March 9, in Wuhan, Hubei province, a man was left in a vegetative state following a failed minimally invasive surgery at the Hankou Campus of Tongji Hospital. His family members went to the hospital to demand an explanation.
On March 9, investors in ‘Huangjin Matou’ (Golden Wharf) in Putian, Fujian province, gathered once again at the Putian municipal government offices to demand the return of their investment funds. Huangjin Matou Group Co., Ltd., which had long used high interest rates as a lure to attract deposits, suffered a financial collapse at the end of last month, leaving thousands of victims.
On March 8, in Jiangxia District, Wuhan, Hubei province, homeowners from three residential communities—Poly Time Impression, Liantou Ideal Starlight, and Minmetals Wanjing Water Shore—staged a joint protest to defend their rights. They were protesting against Chuneng New Energy Co., Ltd. for constructing a battery factory just 200 meters away from their neighborhoods.
