China Labor Watch (CLW)

06/23/2026

China Labor Watch’s Executive Director and Founder Li Qiang published a new op-ed in The Hill on why Chinese companies must be held accountable for labor abuses overseas.

🌍 From BYD-linked projects in Hungary and Brazil to Belt and Road worksites worldwide, workers have reported wage theft, unsafe conditions, passport confiscation, and forced labor risks.

⚖️ China’s new outbound investment rules state that companies must respect workers’ rights and host-country laws. These standards must be meaningfully enforced.

China Labor Watch will continue documenting abuses, supporting workers, and calling for accountability wherever Chinese companies operate.

Workers’ rights do not stop at the border.

You can read more here: https://thehill.com/opinion/congress-blog/labor/5929360-chinese-firms-cant-get-away-with-abusing-workers-overseas/

06/16/2026

🚨 BREAKING: U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a Withhold Release Order against Serbia Zijin Copper, detaining all copper imports tied to the Chinese-owned operation over evidence of forced labor.

Investigators documented six ILO indicators — withheld wages, retained passports, intimidation, restricted movement, abuse of vulnerability and excessive overtime. It's the fourth such order this fiscal year.

The findings echo what China Labor Watch and other monitors have long reported about labor abuses across Chinese-run operations abroad. Importers must now export, destroy, or prove their goods are clean. Enforcement against forced labor is tightening.

You can read more here: https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/national-media-release/cbp-issues-withhold-release-order-serbia-zijin-copper-doo

06/15/2026

A year without a single day off should never be normal.

A worker on China National Chemical Engineering No. 7 Construction’s GCC natural gas project in Russia posted about working an entire year without rest. In the comments, the worker said three months of wages were being withheld. Reports from the project in Russia’s Baltic region also point to passport confiscation.

This is not “hard work.” It is a serious labor rights warning sign: overwork, wage withholding, and restrictions on movement.

China Labor Watch calls for immediate wage payment, rest protections, passport return, and accountability for companies profiting from worker exploitation abroad.

06/15/2026

Scam compounds don’t just steal money — they steal freedom.

Vietnamese police have stopped a transnational network from setting up a large-scale online scam center linked to Cambodia, with Chinese nationals reportedly among those involved.

Behind these operations are urgent workers’ rights concerns: deceptive recruitment, debt, document confiscation, confinement, threats, and forced labor.

Crackdowns must protect victims, not punish exploited workers. Organizers, recruiters, and profiteers must be held accountable.

China Labor Watch calls for stronger cross-border action to combat forced labor, defend migrant workers, and protect labor rights across Southeast Asia.

You can read more here: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7472319847415201794

06/12/2026

A Henan rural bank scandal exposes how weak oversight can devastate ordinary people. A low-income villager who reportedly did not understand “loans” found a 200,000-yuan debt under their name, with subsistence funds automatically deducted each month.

Authorities say three nominee loans totaling 790,000 yuan were found and 15 people punished. This is not only a banking issue; it is a labor rights and social protection issue.

Workers and vulnerable residents depend on wages, benefits, and basic subsidies to survive. When financial institutions abuse power, they strip people of security, dignity, and the ability to defend their rights.

You can read the full story here:

06/11/2026

“Nine yuan an hour.”

As graduation season begins in Guangdong, crowds of young people are lining up outside factories for summer jobs—only to face wages as low as 9 yuan ($1.25) per hour. In one viral video, a manager tells applicants: “If you can’t take it, leave.” Almost no one does.

Screenshots from labor groups suggest some factories offer 14–17 yuan/hour, while others predict workers will soon compete for jobs paying just 8 yuan/hour. Many lack social insurance or housing fund benefits. For students and young workers, the summer job rush has become a race to the bottom.

You can read more here:

06/10/2026

There has been a wave of collective labor actions across China, showing recurring problems of unpaid wages, missing social insurance and housing fund contributions, wage deductions, and forced dormitory relocations.

Cases include Mia Precision workers in Dongguan demanding housing fund payments, female workers at Chengdu Yecheng Technology protesting repeated dormitory moves, Wenzhou Xinyi Shoe Factory workers clashing with police over unpaid wages, Lishui Aima Vehicle workers striking against wage cuts, and Yunfu Changli Ceramics workers blocking the factory for three days to recover six months of arrears.

These disputes reflect workers’ struggle for basic labor rights.

You can read more here:

各地集体维权事件频发，工人追讨公积金、抗议频繁搬迁宿舍、讨薪与警方冲突、因克扣工资罢工，甚至堵厂追讨半年欠薪。劳动者所争取的，不过是工资、社保、公积金、住宿稳定等最基本的劳动权益。

06/09/2026

The New York Times reviewed 34 Chinese social-media accounts and over 400 posts on Douyin and Xiaohongshu promoting goods made in North Korean factories—wigs, false eyelashes, stuffed toys, and crocheted bags—touting thousands of cheap, skilled workers, some laboring 16 hours straight.

Such openly advertised joint ventures violate U.N. sanctions. The videos signal warming China–North Korea ties: official trade neared $1 billion in early 2026, up 23%, and Xi Jinping visited Pyongyang on Monday.

Much activity centers on Rason's special economic zone, where laborers live under military-style discipline, eat communally, and work beneath propaganda slogans reinforcing loyalty to Kim Jong-un.

On social media, Chinese entrepreneurs are touting cheap labor across the border, as trade between the two countries regains momentum.

06/08/2026

Shanghai Autowise (仙途智能), a company producing driverless street-sweeping vehicles once courted by Beijing and reportedly holding a 3-billion-yuan contract, has faced mass wage arrears since 2025.

Around 120 workers were laid off within three months, with core department heads departing one after another—even the HR rep told a caller, "I've left too, and I'm owed wages too."

Most strikingly, some employees who won court judgments still couldn't recover their wages, because the company's accounts held no executable assets; they received only a tiny "consolation payment." It's a textbook case of China's wave of collapsing tech startups: legally actionable on paper, yet a winning judgment proves effectively worthless.

“胜诉都拿不回工资！” 无人环卫仙途智能“崩盘”：上百人离职，HR也跑了，产品有多鸡肋？

01/31/2026

China Labor Watch Statement on the UK Government’s Public Engagement with Labubu
January 31, 2026
China Labor Watch expresses serious concern regarding the UK government’s recent decision to publicly engage with and endorse the Chinese designer toy company Pop Mart, including welcoming the company’s move to establish London as its European hub.
Just ten days ago, China Labor Watch released an independent investigative report on manufacturing facilities associated with Pop Mart. Based on first-hand worker interviews and fact verification, the report documented multiple ongoing labor rights concerns, including excessive overtime, inadequate labor protections, the absence of effective grievance mechanisms, the forced overtime of underage workers, the withholding of workers’ wages, and other practices indicative of suspected forced labor.
As of now, we have not observed any substantive improvements in labor conditions at the relevant factories.
Against this backdrop, the UK government has nonetheless chosen to publicly support and promote the company’s European expansion, without disclosing whether any independent and effective human rights and labor due diligence has been conducted regarding labor risks within Pop Mart’s supply chain. This decision sends a troubling and dangerous signal to the international human rights and labor community.
The signal is clear: even when labor rights concerns have been clearly documented, are temporally recent, and remain unresolved, they may still be sidelined so long as a company is considered commercially or politically attractive.
When governments choose to publicly endorse companies despite unresolved labor rights concerns, the implications extend far beyond any individual case. Such practices risk undermining stated commitments to values-based trade policies and exacerbating unfair competition.
Based on the facts outlined above, China Labor Watch urges the UK government to reconsider its public engagement with and policy endorsement of Pop Mart, and to clarify how this decision aligns with its stated commitments to labor rights and responsible business conduct. We formally request that the UK government issue a public response to the concerns raised above.
Li Qiang
Executive Director