China’s Local Finances Are in Crisis, Civil Servants Take to the Streets to Demand Their Salaries

In recent years, the economic growth that Chinese authorities pride themselves on has stagnated and is even going downhill. In particular, during the 3 years of the pandemic, the Chinese Communist authorities regulated the whole industry with a harsh zero-COVID policy, which led to an economic standstill, loss of foreign trade orders to Vietnam and southeast asia countries, the closure of small and medium-sized businesses, and an increase in the number of unemployed. The local government's way of making money by selling land did not work due to the collapse of the real estate industry, causing an immediate financial crisis.

On March 1, 2023, more than thirty employees held up white paper and banners in front of the Zhenjiang City tax bureau in Jiangsu Province, demanding their unpaid salaries. On February 28, in front of the Harbin Branch of China Post, many employees held banners calling for wages, and kept shouting slogans such as "malicious pay cuts, heaven forbid", "China Post not paying wages"