“Hong Kong-Funded Yintu Electric Workers in Guangdong and Jiangxi Strike for Unpaid Wages and Social Insurance (Nov 3–13, 2025)”
Hundreds of workers at the Hong Kong–funded Yintu Electric factory in Shenzhen went on strike again this Thursday (November 13) to protest the company’s failure to pay social insurance contributions. This is the second strike since September. According to workers, Yintu Electric has long suffered from wage arrears and unpaid social insurance, and employees must resort to striking almost every month just to receive their wages and benefits. The latest action was triggered by the company’s failure to pay social insurance for two consecutive months. Videos from the scene show around 200 workers gathering and blocking the factory gate.
Meanwhile, for the same reasons, 300 workers at Yintu Electric’s factory in Ji’an, Jiangxi also launched a strike on November 3, demanding overdue wages and the settlement of unpaid social insurance. As of November 10, the strike was still ongoing. Under pressure from the workers, the company made a promise on that day: it would fully pay the outstanding wages for September on November 14. As for the unpaid social insurance, the initial plan is to make supplementary payments at the end of each month.
Public information shows that Yintu Electric is a subsidiary of Hong Kong Yintu Industrial Co., Ltd. It operates three factories in China—located in Shenzhen (Guangdong), Jiangmen (Guangdong), and Ji’an (Jiangxi).
“Guangdong Huaiji Villagers Clash Fiercely with Forced Land Expropriation Team (Nov 12, 2025)”
On Wednesday, November 12, villagers in Tongguang Village, Lengkeng Town, Huaiji County, Zhaoqing City, Guangdong Province, clashed with a land expropriation team over a piece of collectively owned land that had been secretly sold by the village committee. The standoff lasted from day to night, with multiple clashes breaking out during the confrontation.
According to villagers, the land was secretly sold for the construction of a new road, and the payment had already been embezzled. Villagers only discovered the sale when road construction began. What angered and worried them even more was that the road would serve a large pig farm being built nearby. Villagers fear that once the farm begins operation, the wastewater and foul odor it produces will severely pollute the environment, making Tongguang Village uninhabitable.
Out of concern for their living environment and anger over the land seizure, the villagers launched a protest in August to block the project. On October 17, they intercepted several construction vehicles and clashed with personnel who tried to drive them away. Thanks to the villagers’ persistence, the construction has remained suspended since then.
On November 12, the local government once again sent a large number of personnel into the village to forcibly resume construction. Witnesses said that three buses filled with expropriation workers and two ambulances entered Tongguang Village that day. The workers, carrying shields, formed a human wall to prevent villagers from approaching the site.
Villagers set off fireworks to sound the alarm and called for more people to come and help. Clashes soon erupted. The villagers’ protest tents were torn down, and a female villager was injured. In anger, some villagers threw dirt toward the expropriation team. Although most protesters were women and elderly people, they continued confronting the team until late at night, during which more clashes broke out. Later, the local government deployed large numbers of police to the village in an attempt to suppress the protest by force.
Villagers said they were outnumbered and could not stop the construction, but vowed to continue defending their homeland. One villager posted on social media:
“I’ll keep posting updates about our protest. If one day you no longer see our voices online, it probably means we’ve been taken away.”
The collapse of the “Private Lending Registration Service Center” in Hancheng, Shaanxi, continues to unfold. On Monday, November 10, hundreds of investors gathered again in front of the Hancheng city government, demanding the return of their investments totaling 1.1 billion yuan. The peaceful protest was quickly suppressed by police. Several investors were violently treated, and 10 were arrested on the spot, only being released around 7 p.m.
A government-endorsed scam: from financial innovation to collective trap
The Hancheng Private Lending Registration Service Center was established in June 2014 as a platform to guide private capital toward “transparency” and “standardization.” It was not an ordinary enterprise: the center was led by the Hancheng city government, with then-mayor Zhang Jianzhong heading the leadership team, and two deputy mayors along with officials from the public security, finance, court, and financial bureaus serving as members.
Promoted through local media and government documents, the center was portrayed as a model of official financial reform. The Hancheng Daily described it as offering “risk-free, high-return investment channels” and featured stories of villagers investing their children’s tuition and retirement savings. The government claimed it had “successfully issued over 1 billion yuan in loans with zero bad debts.”
With such high-level backing and promotion, the center’s 8% monthly return plan attracted many citizens. Most investors were retirees, small merchants, or farmers, trusting that “the government supervises it, so the risks are controlled,” with some even selling houses or using retirement savings to invest.
However, what the government called “financial innovation” became a collective disaster. In late September 2025, the center abruptly announced a funding crisis, leading to a total collapse. Statistics show around 2,200 victims were affected, with total losses of approximately 1.1 billion yuan.
The government as both player and referee
After the collapse, the Hancheng city government announced it would “take over” the center and promised a “solution plan,” but no action has been taken to date. When it could not fulfill its promises, authorities resorted to violent suppression of investors.
In this case, the Hancheng government quickly shifted from being the instigator to the “maintainer of order.” While such incidents are not uncommon, this level of brazen involvement is rare. When the government acts as both player and referee, the people are the only victims.
Chinese State-Owned Enterprises Owe Wages Worldwide: “Belt and Road” Becomes “Owe and Road” (Nov 5, 2025)
On November 5, news of a strike at the Simandou iron mine project in Guinea quickly drew attention from Chinese overseas workers worldwide. Reports indicated that Shanxi Construction Investment, the project contractor, had long withheld wages from Chinese workers, forcing them to work unpaid for three consecutive months. Eventually, the workers staged a strike and blocked roads to demand payment.
After workers uploaded videos and information online, Chinese laborers from Africa, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and even Europe quickly responded, sharing their own experiences of unpaid wages on similar projects. These scattered accounts reveal a shocking and long-ignored reality: wage arrears by Chinese state-owned enterprises worldwide are becoming systematic and normalized.
According to incomplete statistics, reported cases of unpaid wages span five continents—Asia, Africa, Europe, the Americas, and Oceania—and involve fourteen countries, including Guinea, Tanzania, Saudi Arabia, Belarus, and Cambodia. Companies accused of withholding wages include the backbone of China’s overseas infrastructure investment: China Railway Group, China State Construction, China Hydropower, PetroChina, Sinopec, PowerChina, China Metallurgical Group, China National Earthquake Engineering, and Shanxi Construction Investment. Workers have been left unpaid for months, sometimes over half a year.
For more than a decade, China has promoted the “Belt and Road Initiative” as a national-level strategy to showcase its international influence and development vision. In reality, however, many projects fall far short of their initial promises, with some halted or left unfinished. Italy, the Philippines, and Panama have even withdrawn from related projects.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Chinese overseas workers are increasingly vulnerable. They build railways, dams, and roads in foreign countries, performing the hardest labor. When projects stall due to financial crises or political instability, these workers are often the first to be abandoned. They cannot collect their hard-earned wages and are frequently prevented by companies—or even local authorities—from seeking help online under the pretext of “protecting national image” or “understanding national difficulties.” Any attempt to speak out online is met with threats and suppression, and posts are often deleted within hours.
These Chinese state-owned enterprises also withhold wages from local workers. However, local laborers are generally protected by national laws and labor unions and are less vulnerable than Chinese workers. Delaying their pay is more likely to provoke strikes or even violent conflict. As a result, Chinese workers’ wages are more easily withheld.
Today, in China’s official narrative, the “Belt and Road” is rarely mentioned. The initiative, once promoted as a “modern Silk Road,” is increasingly turning into a route defined by unfinished projects and unpaid wages—a true “Owe and Road.”
Over a Thousand Villagers in Yunnan Clash with Government “Corpse Retrieval Teams” Over Forced Cremation Policy (Nov 5, 2025)
On Wednesday, a large protest broke out in Qingshan Village, Zhongtun Town, Zhenxiong County, Zhaotong City, Yunnan Province, where over a thousand villagers gathered to resist the local government’s policy of forced cremation. Villagers from surrounding towns joined together to block government personnel from seizing the body of a deceased resident and ultimately succeeded in burying the deceased according to traditional customs. During the protest, clashes erupted between villagers and government officials.
The incident was triggered by a highly controversial “mandatory cremation” policy recently introduced by the Zhenxiong County government, which requires all deceased residents to be cremated. The policy has sparked widespread outrage among locals, who argue that earth burials are an ancestral tradition deeply tied to their cultural and emotional heritage, and should not be abolished through a one-size-fits-all directive. Many villagers also expressed concern over the high costs associated with cremation, noting that the government had provided no clear financial assistance or guarantees regarding cremation fees or burial arrangements.
However, public opinion appears to hold little weight under the Chinese Communist Party’s governance priorities. Despite widespread opposition, local authorities have been aggressively enforcing the policy—reportedly even going so far as to exhume and cremate bodies that had already been buried. In one particularly shocking case in Toutun Village, near Qingshan, a family, fearing forced cremation, buried their deceased relative across the border in Dahe Township, Bijie City, Guizhou Province. Yet, just five days later, the grave was found dug up and the body missing. The family later received a call from the local funeral home instructing them to come “handle the follow-up procedures.”
On November 5, over a thousand villagers again gathered in Qingshan Village to ensure that another deceased resident could be buried peacefully. In response, local authorities deployed a large number of officials to the village to block the burial procession and seize the body, setting up multiple human barricades along the route.
When the burial ceremony began, several women confronted the officials in a tense standoff. Moments later, a group of young men carrying the coffin broke through the blockade. Video footage shows the massive funeral procession chanting slogans such as “No to forced cremation!” as they pushed past government lines. Outnumbered and overpowered, the officials quickly dispersed and did not attempt further confrontation. Villagers then dismantled several more lines of obstruction before successfully completing the burial.
After the burial, the deceased’s family members took turns guarding the gravesite for several days to prevent government personnel from exhuming the body.
Incidents of resistance against forced cremation have been increasingly common in recent years. In 2024 alone, two major protests took place in the neighboring Guizhou provinces of Jinsha and Pingtang, where villagers successfully pressured local governments to abandon mandatory cremation policies.
[Shoe Factory Worker Forced to Work While Sick, Jumps to Death Under Overwhelming Pressure (Nov 5–7, 2025)]
A heartbreaking tragedy recently took place in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province. On November 3, at Phase III of the China Shoe Capital Industrial Park in Lucheng District, a shoe factory worker fell from the sixth floor and died. The victim was an employee of Wenzhou Yaduo Shoes Co., Ltd.
According to the victim’s family, the worker had been ill but was still forced to work long hours despite their condition. Under prolonged, high-intensity labor and enormous mental pressure, the worker ultimately ended their life in an extreme act of despair.
After the incident, the victim’s family gathered in front of Yaduo Shoes for three consecutive days, from November 5 to 7, demanding an explanation and compensation from the company. However, they said the factory has so far refused to communicate or take responsibility.
The incident sparked widespread outrage among workers in Wenzhou and surrounding areas. Many took to social media to expose the harsh working conditions that are widespread across China’s manufacturing sector—particularly in Wenzhou’s shoe factories:
Excessive working hours and lack of rest: Multiple workers reported that nearly all Wenzhou shoe factories allow only one day off per month, with workdays exceeding 12 hours.
Difficult or denied sick leave: Workers said, “If you want to see a doctor, you must present a hospital certificate or it’s counted as absenteeism.” “If you feel unwell and ask for leave, management refuses, saying either resign or pay someone to cover your shift yourself.”
The tragedy at Wenzhou Yaduo Shoes is not an isolated case. Across China—from coastal manufacturing hubs to inland subcontracting factories—overwork and excessive labor are widespread, and deaths from exhaustion occur frequently. On November 6, at Shenzhen Shenqi Hao Manufacturing in Guangdong, a worker died in the workshop. When the bereaved family came to seek justice, the factory manager responded with a provocative “V” hand gesture—exposing the contempt with which frontline workers are often regarded by management.
For decades, China’s official narrative has celebrated the country’s identity as the “world’s factory” and a “manufacturing powerhouse.” Yet behind this pride lies the systemic exploitation of ordinary workers, whose health, dignity, and even lives are repeatedly sacrificed through relentless overwork.
This model of “efficiency” and “profit” built on the violation of human rights reveals that the so-called “manufacturing powerhouse” is, in essence, nothing more than a vast modern-day slave factory.
Officials and Bank Collude to Embezzle 60 Million Yuan in Deposits — Villagers’ Fight for Justice Ends in Prison Sentences (Nov. 6, 2025)
As of November 6, dozens of villagers from Yong’an Town, Fengjie County, Chongqing, have been standing outside the Agricultural Bank of China’s Kuizhou Road branch for three consecutive weeks. They are not there to withdraw money—they are demanding the return of more than 60 million yuan in missing deposits. The funds were originally land compensation issued to them in 1997, after their farmland was seized for the construction of the Three Gorges Project. Over the past two decades, the money has seemingly “vanished,” and the villagers’ long struggle to reclaim it has turned into a tragic story of violence and persecution. Many have been beaten, detained, or imprisoned, yet the missing millions have never been recovered.
The origins of the case date back to 1997, when thousands of mu of farmland belonging to Shili, Guijing, and Baima villages in Yong’an Town were expropriated for the relocation of Fengjie’s new county seat. According to villagers, the local government had verbally promised compensation of 7,000 yuan per mu. However, what followed blatantly violated both legal procedure and official promises. Then–Fengjie County Party Secretary Liu Benrong and others allegedly deposited the compensation funds into several banks, including the Agricultural Bank of China’s Yong’an branch, without the villagers’ consent.In 1999, the villagers finally received passbooks that supposedly represented their land compensation, but the amounts recorded were far below what had been promised. Worse still, when villagers tried to withdraw their funds, they discovered that the passbooks were meaningless—no principal, no interest, and no access to any money. In 2001, the local government went a step further: it forcibly reclaimed some villagers’ passbooks at a fixed price of 9,954 yuan each, threatening to bar their children from attending school if they refused to comply.Those who refused to hand over their passbooks have never received any compensation. When they went to the bank to inquire about their missing deposits, they were told that the funds had been transferred away by a county leader—the bank manager refused to name who, citing “confidentiality.” Local officials, meanwhile, coldly asserted that “the land belongs to the state, and the compensation belongs to the government.” The villagers countered that their farmland had been contracted to individual households in 1981, long before the expropriation.
For more than two decades, the villagers have refused to give up. Yet their pursuit of justice has been met with relentless suppression and violence. Not only have they failed to recover their lost compensation, but they have also endured arbitrary beatings, detentions, and imprisonment. At least five villagers have been sentenced to prison. According to witnesses, even elderly villagers in their sixties were stripped, tied to “tiger benches,” and tortured by officials.
The repression has only intensified in recent years. In June 2024, six villagers—including Deng Weibi, Li Shengjie, and Yang Jinfeng—traveled to Beijing to petition the central government. They were intercepted by Fengjie authorities, including current county police chief and deputy Party secretary Xiong Jinwang, and detained in a “black jail” in Beijing’s Fengtai District. Villagers say the six were brutally beaten: Li Shengjie was terrorized to the point of losing control of his bowels; Deng Weibi suffered head injuries, lost teeth, and partial hearing; Yang Jinfeng had his fingers broken.
Now, as this latest protest enters its third week, the bank continues to dodge responsibility—closing its doors and claiming to be “temporarily closed”—while the local government has dispatched large numbers of police and officials to “maintain stability.” The vanished 60 million yuan is not just the villagers’ lost livelihood after losing their land—it is evidence of more than two decades of systemic abuse of power. The villagers’ struggle for justice continues, though the road ahead remains long and perilous.
Hundreds of Villagers in Shanxi Surround City Government to Protest Soaring Natural Gas Prices (Nov. 5, 2025)
Hundreds of villagers in Jiexiu, Shanxi, gathered in front of the city government on Wednesday to protest the sudden sharp rise in local natural gas prices, temporarily blocking the main entrance of the government building.
The incident stems from Jiexiu’s “coal-to-gas” policy. Sandahe Village in Songgu Township, as the city’s first “coal-free village” pilot, had all coal heating facilities removed in 2017 by the Jiexiu government under the guise of environmental protection and promoting clean energy, while a large number of natural gas wall-mounted boilers were installed. At the time, the government promised various subsidies to encourage villagers’ compliance: 1 yuan per cubic meter for household usage within 1,120 cubic meters annually, a 4,000-yuan subsidy for wall-mounted boilers, and a 2,800-yuan subsidy for opening pipeline accounts. Villagers calculated that, with these subsidies, heating with natural gas would cost less than traditional coal.
However, due to the sudden increase in natural gas prices, villagers found themselves unable to afford winter heating costs. On October 22, 2025, the Jiexiu Development and Reform Bureau and the Jiexiu Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau jointly issued a document raising the sales price of residential piped natural gas from 2.61 yuan per cubic meter to 2.97 yuan per cubic meter, with tiered pricing adjusted accordingly, reaching a maximum of 4.45 yuan per cubic meter—a price increase far beyond what villagers could bear.
Villagers expressed extreme anger, criticizing the government for previously forcibly removing boilers and banning coal under the banner of environmental protection, while now letting natural gas costs rise sharply, forcing villagers to shoulder the high cost of clean energy. One villager lamented on social media: “The people of Sandahe can’t survive; winter heating has become a major problem. We don’t even dare to turn on the gas.” Another said that last winter’s heating costs reached 5,000 yuan, describing the charges as a “bottomless pit.” Some villagers demanded the cancellation of the coal ban and a return to relatively cheaper centralized coal heating. On October 3, villagers went to the township government to protest but received no response.
During the protest on October 5, because government security prevented villagers from entering the office area, the angry villagers surrounded the city government’s main gate, shouting slogans and demanding the cancellation of the unreasonable gas price hike. As of now, the local government has yet to issue an official response to the villagers’ demands.
“New Wave of Manufacturing Worker Strikes: 14 Cases in 4 Days (Nov 1–4, 2025)”
Following the wave of 22 manufacturing worker strikes over 33 days from August to early September this year, China’s manufacturing sector has entered another high period of labor-management conflict in early November. Compared with the previous wave, the current outbreak is more concentrated and intense: in just four days from November 1 to 4, the “Yesterday” project recorded 14 instances of worker strikes or collective wage demands.
Among these 14 labor rights incidents, only one was triggered by wage deductions, while the remaining 13 were all caused by long-term wage arrears. The delay periods ranged from as short as two months to as long as six months or even a year, clearly reflecting a trend of widespread wage arrears due to tight corporate cash flows.
The 14 labor incidents are as follows:
Nov 1: Workers of Guangdong Qingyuan Guanxing Ceramics Co., Ltd. demanded unpaid wages.
Nov 1: Workers of Jiangxi Nanchang Juren Garments Co., Ltd. demanded unpaid wages.
Nov 1: Workers of Zhejiang Hangzhou Gaodi Industrial Park Yucheng Garments Co., Ltd. demanded unpaid wages.
Nov 1: Workers of a factory in Quanzhou Jinjiang Qingmei Industrial Park, Fujian demanded unpaid wages.
Nov 2: Workers of Guangdong Foshan Yabo Furniture Industrial Co., Ltd. demanded unpaid wages.
Nov 2–3: Workers of Guangdong Guangzhou Baiyun District Yashi Leather Co., Ltd. demanded unpaid wages.
Nov 3: Workers of Hunan Hengyang Juneng Technology Co., Ltd. demanded unpaid wages.
Nov 3: Workers of Jiangxi Ganzhou Xinfeng County Tuoyuan New Energy Co., Ltd. demanded unpaid wages.
Nov 3: Workers of Zhejiang Wenzhou Baohua Eyewear Co., Ltd. demanded unpaid wages.
Nov 3–4: Workers of Anhui Lu’an Shucheng County Huijun Technology Co., Ltd. went on strike to protest wage deductions.
Nov 3–4: Workers of Guangdong Shenzhen Zijia Technology Co., Ltd. demanded unpaid wages.
Nov 3–4: Workers of Jiangxi Ji’an Yintu Industrial Co., Ltd. demanded unpaid wages.
Nov 4: Workers of Hubei Longmu Special-purpose Vehicle Co., Ltd. demanded unpaid wages.
Nov 4: Workers of Zhejiang Taizhou Wenling Lianying Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. demanded unpaid wages.
Amid the ongoing economic slowdown in China, weak global demand, and international trade tensions, wage arrears and strike incidents in China’s manufacturing sector are becoming increasingly frequent. For workers, wages are often their sole source of income, and prolonged delays directly threaten their ability to pay for rent, utilities, and food. However, due to the lack of trade unions and effective legal assistance, as well as the common occurrence of employers fleeing or transferring assets when a factory’s finances break down, collective labor actions often fizzle out. Workers who are forced to take more radical measures also face the risk of detention or even criminal prosecution.
China State Construction Fifth Engineering Division Workers Strike at Africa “Belt and Road” Project (Nov 3, 2025)
On November 3, Chinese construction workers at the China State Construction Fifth Engineering Division’s (CSCEC Fifth Division) “520 Hospital Project” in Algeria went on strike to demand unpaid wages. The workers gathered at the project office, calling on the Third Company of the Fifth Division to settle months of wage arrears.
According to one worker, although he has already returned to China, he is still owed five months of wages totaling about 80,000 yuan (approximately USD 11,000), which remain unpaid. Another worker said that after working on the project for two months, he not only received no pay but actually lost around 24,000 yuan due to unpaid expenses.
Photos uploaded by workers to social media show one of them wearing a T-shirt with slogans reading “CSCEC Fifth Division Third Company, Pay Back Our Hard-Earned Wages, Algeria 520 Hospital,” displaying it publicly at the construction site to protest.
Public information indicates that the project, officially named the “520-Bed Military Hospital in Algiers, the Capital of Algeria,” is a key project under China’s Belt and Road Initiative, undertaken by the China State Construction Fifth Engineering Division.
