this post was submitted on 24 May 2025
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A Chinese factory employee set fire to a textile plant in China’s southwestern Sichuan province in his frustration over unpaid wages of just 800 yuan (or US$111), according to videos posted on social media and eyewitness accounts shared with Radio Free Asia.

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[–] wanderwisley@lemm.ee 39 points 4 days ago

My dear overworked and underpaid fellow Americans please take notes…

[–] walktheplank@lemmy.world 132 points 5 days ago (1 children)
[–] mavu@discuss.tchncs.de 55 points 5 days ago (3 children)

We (the west) often look at the chinese with some amount of arrogance about them being "peasants".
Truth is, Winnie Pooh has to take some care, because they will fuck things up if their situation gets worse instead of better.

[–] PugJesus@lemmy.world 71 points 5 days ago (4 children)

I mean, people who think the Chinese people are just 'peasants' tend to be pretty goddamn ignorant.

Systems are difficult to oppose in every society. We're all just trying to get by.

[–] OmegaLemmy@discuss.online 19 points 5 days ago (1 children)

ignorant is too light, I say racism, say whatever you want about china, if you see Chinese people as peasants you're a racist POS

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[–] JoeKis@lemmy.world 49 points 5 days ago
[–] PugJesus@lemmy.world 110 points 5 days ago (2 children)

"just 800 yuan (or US$111)"

"just"

Fuck man, I'd go ballistic over $111 of unpaid wages, and that's probably a bigger chunk of that employee's monthly wages than mine.

[–] throwawayacc0430@sh.itjust.works 34 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (3 children)

Most payments in China are monthy, not weekly/bi-weekly as with in the west.

You'd be mad too if you find out you're not gonna be paid for work done for the past month*.

Edit: *Or if its only partial payment

[–] Kekzkrieger@feddit.org 48 points 5 days ago

With west you mean usa? Most of Europe gets paid on a monthly basis.

[–] neons@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Most payments in China are monthy, not weekly/bi-weekly as with in the west.

Where in "the west" do you live? My paychecks (Switzerland) are definitely monthly.

[–] Obi@sopuli.xyz 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I only ever heard of North Americans getting paid weekly/bi-weekly as standard.

[–] MisterFrog@lemmy.world 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

A bunch of Europeans in this comment section forgetting there are more "western" countries than just western Europe and the USA/north America.

Fortnightly is the most common in Australia, with some people paid monthly also (depends on the company).

And thankful for this. Monthly sounds terrible

[–] Obi@sopuli.xyz 0 points 2 days ago

Notice how I specifically talked about places I heard of, never claimed I knew of every country. And I don't really care one way or another myself tbh, I guess monthly mostly serves to reduce paperwork. More frequent sounds like it might better as the employee.

[–] tal@lemmy.today 4 points 5 days ago

https://www.erieri.com/salary/job/factory-worker/china

The average pay for a Factory Worker is CNY 58,959 a year and CNY 28 an hour in China.

That'd be 26 hours at average factory wage, according to this site. I don't think that it's likely more than a week, if that.

[–] False@lemmy.world 14 points 5 days ago (1 children)

My first reaction was "That's not very much - guess they should have paid him!"

I doubt they actually owe ¥800 in total, because they could have just pay 99 other workers ¥8 less and can still pay this person ¥792, this way, the factory owner only owes ¥8 to 100 different individuals rather than oweing ¥800 to one individual. I doubt someone is gonna do arson for ¥8 delayed payment.

So I assume they probably owe other employees as well. Just to illustrate:

If they owe ¥800 to 100 employees, each.

That's ¥80 000 Yuan/RMB ≈ $11 140 USD

A lot of debt.

[–] OmegaLemmy@discuss.online 68 points 5 days ago

Ummm, based?

[–] FordBeeblebrox@lemmy.world 23 points 4 days ago

Should have just given the man his stapler.

[–] frog_brawler@lemmy.world 29 points 4 days ago

Should have given him his $111

[–] bappity@lemmy.world 49 points 5 days ago
[–] Someonelol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 51 points 5 days ago (2 children)

If the CCP's all about championing the humble worker then surely they'll approve of this guy's actions, right?

[–] OmegaLemmy@discuss.online 32 points 5 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

CCP shuts down alternative unions and prevents any left wing demonstrations, it's ironic, you don't have to fall into a party line when you're not a party member yet they're being hunted down as if they just broke the rules of ~~centralised democracy~~ democratic centralism

[–] barsoap@lemm.ee 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

centralised democracy

I think you mean democratic centralism.

"Centralised democracy" I think would make sense when contrasting parliamentarian vs. direct democracy. None of the ML parties ever implemented democratic centralism but bureaucratic centralism (ie. party leaders decide, base follows). It was never intended to be an organisation principle for a whole country, just a party, OTOH it's a neat way to dress up autocracy as democracy so of course it's been done plenty of times.

Lenin described the SPD as democratically centralist and well, yes, maybe back then. The structures are still in place but the whole party is paralysed when it comes to making decisions so in the end the Seeheimer rule, i.e. the neoliberal wing. It's a rather perverse situation: An actually still lefty base, or at least union people, following a neoliberal vanguard with red paintjob.

[–] OmegaLemmy@discuss.online 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Yea brain fart, good catch

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[–] in4apenny@lemmy.dbzer0.com 33 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Meanwhile most Americans who are forced to work full time with no paid vacation or healthcare instead go off and say, "I don't pay attention to politics, it's depressing. I'm just gonna work on myself," as they accept never being able to afford their dream vacation, their own home, or that new truck they desperately need.

Proletariat Uprising

Power to the people!

To quote the CCP (which is ironic, given they are the oppressors): “革命无罪,造反有理!” (Revolution is not a Crime, Rebellion is Just!)

[–] assassinatedbyCIA@lemmy.world 26 points 5 days ago
[–] TimewornTraveler@lemm.ee 18 points 5 days ago

Fight back!

[–] venusaur@lemmy.world 30 points 5 days ago

800 yuan to this person could be equivalent to the entire factory for the company

[–] TassieTosser@aussie.zone 11 points 4 days ago

Where's his picture so we can canonized him like St Luigi.

[–] ianhclark510@lemmy.blahaj.zone 21 points 5 days ago (1 children)

A quick peek at the article doesn’t show any fatalities/injuries, so based?

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[–] Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 31 points 5 days ago (1 children)
[–] Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works 9 points 5 days ago

I believe you have my stapler

[–] DozensOfDonner@mander.xyz 15 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Note that RFA is mentioned as a very bad source in other communities.

[–] IndustryStandard@lemmy.world 20 points 4 days ago (1 children)

RFA is a literal CIA propaganda outlet. Like directly created and funded by the CIA to spread anti China propaganda.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Free_Asia_(Committee_for_a_Free_Asia)

Radio Free Asia (RFA) was a news agency operated from 1951 to 1955 by the Central Intelligence Agency, through the Committee for Free Asia, to broadcast anti-Communist propaganda.

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[–] orcrist@lemm.ee 19 points 5 days ago

Just $11? Just? If you need that money, then it's a lot of money to you. But capitalists always use double speak. They could have said that the company was trying to stiff him over a mere $111, which would have been 0.000001% of the company's operating costs.

[–] markovs_gun@lemmy.world 9 points 5 days ago (4 children)

Idk. On one hand I really appreciate the energy but on the other hand this is kind of fucked up for everyone else that works there, and I assume there were people inside when he did this. Like what are all his coworkers going to do for work now that the factory is burned down? I know that's part of why capitalism sucks but it's not like they can do anything about it as individuals.

[–] ryathal@sh.itjust.works 6 points 4 days ago

There's plenty of other factories that might even pay their workers.

[–] Lumiluz@slrpnk.net 7 points 4 days ago

Assumption they were getting paid considering he wasn't

[–] funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

what are all his co-workers going to do

form a union?

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[–] TassieTosser@aussie.zone 3 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Burn down the executive's houses?

[–] harmsy@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

Cave Johnson made a lemon for that.

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[–] IvanOverdrive@lemm.ee 9 points 5 days ago

The Pingshan county police confirmed an incident of arson and said the arsonist had been detained at the scene of the fire.

A better way to do it is to wait a couple of weeks, burn the place down so it looked like a naturally occurring fire, and not get caught.

[–] DrFistington@lemmy.world 11 points 5 days ago

Fuck yeah. Ask them if it was worth it now. You were going to live as a wage slave regardless.

[–] rhvg@lemmy.world 10 points 5 days ago

They will not probably see the sun for the rest of life.

[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 6 points 5 days ago

We've come full circle.

[–] LonstedBrowryBased@lemm.ee 5 points 5 days ago
[–] carlossurf@lemmy.ca 5 points 5 days ago

Winnie the pooh probably gonna torture this dude

[–] Hadriscus@lemm.ee 4 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

that's the spirit, chinese bromrade

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