Several recent incidents of death-defense protests in China have attracted widespread attention. According to labor watchers and rights activists, these incidents show that even though China has laws in place to protect workers’ legal rights, under the CCP’s authoritarian system, which has no rule of law and no freedom of the press, workers’ rights are “harder than ever” to defend.
Food delivery worker sets himself on fire in despair after failing to collect wages
On January 11 this year, Liu Jin, a 48-year-old delivery man, poured gasoline on his body outside the Jingjiang Winning Run Taizhou store in the east gate of Times Garden in Hailing District, Taizhou City, Jiangsu Province, to protest against the store’s deduction of his share of delivery service fees.
Fortunately, after doctors’ treatment, Liu Jin’s Life was saved, but Taizhou City People’s Hospital diagnosed that Liu Jin had respiratory burns and 80% second and third degree burns all over his body, requiring treatment in the intensive care unit for at least two months, with all the preliminary treatment costing about 1 million RMB.
According to Chinese media reports, Liu Jin, who is only 1.6 meters tall, has been working in Taizhou for more than 10 years, and signed a “Project Subcontracting Agreement” with the “Good Living (Xuzhou)” company in October 2019 to contract the Jingjiang Winning Run Company’s “hungry” meal delivery business. “Hungry” is the Alibaba Group’s, providing online ordering services such as life services platform.
Before the self-immolation, Liu Jin’s mother in his hometown hospitalized, he borrowed 2,000 yuan with colleagues. In addition, his wife has liver disease, can not work properly, need additional expenses to see a doctor to take Medicine. His youngest daughter went to college last year and needs 1500 yuan a month for living expenses, more than 1000 yuan for renting an apartment, and more than 1500 yuan for various expenses for daily Family life, leaving little income left each month.
Every month, Liu Jin, who is “waiting for rice” at Home, has repeatedly approached the director of the distribution station and the boss of Jingjiang Winning Run Company to recover his salary, but the management has determined that Liu Jin’s behavior is “urgent resignation” (those who do not apply for resignation one month in advance, the salary for the month is calculated according to the distribution fee of 1.5 yuan per order. (1.5 yuan per single delivery.) Therefore, his wages were deducted.
After Liu Jin failed to recover the 5,000 yuan deducted from the delivery service fee, he took the extreme way of self-immolation, but paid a painful price for it, as he suffered extensive burns all over his body and needed to spend an astronomical amount of medical fees, and might lose his ability to work in the future, unable to earn money to support his family.
Is self-immolation the only way to get the government’s attention?
People generally believe that the value of life is higher than money, for a mere 5,000 yuan and self-immolation, seems somehow not worth. But for every day from morning to night driving through the streets and alleys to deliver food, family difficulties, Liu came in to say, “money than life expensive. It is reported that Liu Jin said to his wife before the incident: “the money is too difficult to ask for, asked for several times are not given”. Even after he set himself on fire and was sent to the hospital, Liu Jin said to his sister Liu Ping, “I don’t want to live anymore, I’ve lived enough, I’m too tired”.
After Liu Jin’s self-immolation, several Chinese media reported on it, drawing the attention of the local government. The information office of Taizhou Hailing District People’s Government also issued a briefing on the situation. The briefing said that the district party committee and the district government coordinated a team of medical experts at the first Time to provide full assistance to the injured, and set up a joint investigation team to launch a comprehensive investigation into the incident. The briefing said that in the local government and “hungry” company after negotiation, the first medical expenses have been “hungry” remittance to the designated account.
The Voice of America reporter called the Hailing District Government Information Office to learn about the progress of the investigation and handling of Liu Jin’s self-immolation, and an unnamed duty officer who answered the phone refused to answer the reporter’s questions, saying that foreign media interviews must be “through certain diplomatic channels.
The Voice of America reporter also called the food delivery platform “hungry” in Taizhou contractor “win run company,” a woman who did not want to be named said she was aware of Liu Jin’s self-immolation incident, but did not know the details, the company responsible for the matter is not in charge.
Wang Debang, a human rights activist from Guilin, Guangxi, China, said that under the attention of the media and the intervention of the local government in Taizhou, Liu Jin received timely medical treatment after his self-immolation, and perhaps he will be able to receive appropriate compensation in the future, but this kind of case does not mean that ordinary people in China can be generally appeased and compensated for injuries or deaths caused by labor disputes. He said this is a reaction and gesture that the local government has to make under the pressure of public opinion and for its own political future and interests, which is not the way it should behave in a society under the rule of law.
Without a sound mechanism that can establish lasting and universal protection for citizens, even receiving corresponding and reasonable compensation will be accidental and case-by-case,” Wang said. While welcoming media monitoring, it must also be recognized that in China, where there is no freedom of the press, the role of media monitoring is very limited, and that it is necessary to establish its a social, rule of law environment that can truly protect rights and interests, a rule of law platform that puts power under the rule of law, not above it.”
In fact, not only are laborers unable to defend their rights through legal channels, even university professors who have a lawyer’s license and a doctorate in law have ended up on the road to extinction because of the difficulties they face in defending their rights.
Chinese media recently reported that Professor Tou Jiguang, a double doctorate in law and journalism from Sichuan University, began fighting the authorities’ demolition of their two houses in Chengdu’s Chenghua district in 2011, and after repeatedly reporting the district’s mayor, Pu Fayou, in name only, and failing to receive the compensation he believed he deserved, the houses were finally demolished by the authorities in the second half of 2020. Proficient in legal provisions and understanding how to defend his rights, Tou Jiguang, who was a doctoral professor, ended up in despair and used his life to make a last stand, jumping to his death on January 18, 2021 from the 10th floor of a Sichuan University teaching building.
The absence of a real union, the public power to protect the management
Li Qiang, executive director of China Labor Watch in New York, said that Chinese workers are often oppressed and bullied by employers, and that it is difficult and often costly for workers to go through legal channels to defend their rights.
Firstly, it is not always possible to get your rights back (you can’t get your wages back),” he said. Second, the cost of time invested, simply can not afford to delay, it is better to hold back and hurry to find another job. Moreover, in the process of defending rights, (the government) there is no punitive clause for enterprises, even if the enterprise loses, at most, the money is given to you, so that the cost of the ordinary Chinese workers to defend their rights is very high. Why Liu Jin chose to self-immolate, the rights defense is a road of no return.”
According to Li Qiang, another reason why it is difficult for Chinese laborers to defend their rights is that the authorities, in order to preserve employment when China’s economy is increasingly on the downside, tend to favor corporate enterprises that provide employment opportunities when dealing with labor disputes. He said that when ordinary people act aggressively in defending their rights, they may be arrested and imprisoned for “disturbing social order” or “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” if the authorities believe they are causing so-called social instability.
Li Qiang pointed out that China does not have a strong trade union that can truly represent the employees of the company, and support and help them to defend their rights according to the laws and regulations, so they are often “alone” in negotiating and defending their rights with the management, and cannot make the company truly implement the relevant national laws. Therefore, it is difficult to get good results.
Dr. Teng Biao, a former Chinese rights lawyer and legal scholar, said that labor rights in China have always been restricted and denied by authorities and employers, whether in terms of wages, benefits, or working conditions. He said China does not have three independent powers, freedom of the press, and government agencies, including police, courts or arbitration, basically side with the management in case of labor disputes.
Therefore, when workers are owed wages and their rights are violated, it is difficult to find effective channels to solve the problem, so this has caused a large number of tragedies, such as workers not being paid and not being compensated for work injuries, some people choose to commit suicide, and some people choose to use violence to retaliate against society, so this is a huge problem,” Teng Biao said. “
Rights activist Wang Debang said that under the new coronavirus Epidemic, the downward pressure on China’s economy has become more serious, and the work and life of people at the bottom of society have become more difficult, and the road to defend their rights is also difficult.
Both the self-immolations and the wage claims are a symptom of the overall economic hardship,” he said. For many years, the Chinese Communist authorities have been emphasizing the so-called people’s livelihood, but the people themselves have not felt any benefits, they just feel that life is getting more and more difficult, despair is getting stronger, they don’t know where the future is, where the way out is, this kind of livelihood hardship is indeed worrying, this is a common phenomenon.”
Laws to protect laborers are null and void
Wang Debang said the problem of Chinese people’s rights, such as wage claims, has long existed and successive Chinese governments are aware of it.
In 2003, then Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao personally helped Xiong Demin, a migrant worker, to recover unpaid wages. Wen also held a special meeting to formulate a policy to solve the problem of migrant workers and urged the relevant departments to urgently solve the problem of low wages and arrears of migrant workers.
But Wang Depong pointed out that Premier Wen Jiabao’s appearance to help people collect their wages is only a stopgap measure that fails to fundamentally resolve labor-management relations because China has not constructed a mechanism for the rule of law and fairness and justice to protect citizens’ rights and interests.
In December 2018, the Labor Law, which was amended for the second time by the Chinese National People’s Congress to “protect the legitimate rights and interests of workers,” stipulates that “in the event of labor disputes between employers and workers, the parties may apply for mediation, arbitration, or file lawsuits in accordance with the law, or they may negotiate a settlement “, “The settlement of labor disputes shall be based on the principles of lawful, fair and timely treatment, and the legitimate rights and interests of the parties to the labor disputes shall be safeguarded in accordance with the law”.
Wang Debang, a rights activist in Guangxi, China, said that on the surface, China has made some laws to protect labor rights, but in fact, these laws are just some ornaments that do not work. He said that China is not a rule of law country, and as the Chinese official media has publicly admitted, China will not be basically built into a rule of law country until 2035, so the implication is that China is not a rule of law country now.
In fact, these legal arbitrations, including court cases, all end up defending the powerful side,” Wang said. If they say so, it’s so. They are the law. So the people have to go through the legal way to claim their salaries, hoping to get the protection of the power, and this land (China) does not provide such a way, otherwise, the tens of millions of visitors distributed in this land every year, would not be so huge.”
Overtime and over-intensity work is promoted as a corporate Culture
In addition to the issue of wage claims, corporate employees face a problem of defending their rights to overtime and over-intensity work.
Although incidents similar to Liu Jin’s self-immolation are not common in China, blue-collar workers at the bottom of society, and even some white-collar employees, have been forced to work beyond the legal working time limit under great pressure by corporate enterprises in their one-sided pursuit of maximum profits, resulting in the unnatural deaths of employees.
Last December 21, “hungry” delivery person Han Moumou died suddenly on the way to overtime super-intense delivery orders. At first, “hungry” refused to acknowledge the existence of an employment relationship with the deceased, only out of humanitarian compensation of 2,000 yuan, and later under the pressure of public opinion, 600,000 to put the matter to rest.
The company’s employees, who were working in Urumqi on the online shopping platform Jindo, suddenly fainted and died on the way home with their colleagues at 1 a.m. The 23-year-old’s life came to an abrupt end.
Chinese corporate employees, both blue-collar and white-collar, work voluntarily or reluctantly in excess of the legal eight-hour day. The “996” (starting work at 9 a.m. and finishing at 9 p.m. every day, working six days a week) has become a common corporate culture among corporate enterprises.
Jack Ma, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Alibaba, said on April 11, 2019, when talking about the “996” corporate culture, “It is a great blessing to be able to do 996,” and “Today the Chinese BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent) companies are able to work more than the legal hours. I think it is a blessing for us people to be able to do 996”.
Driven by the corporate culture of “996”, which is an overtime and over-intensive work environment, employees can only get their fair share of income at the expense of their health, but what they get in return to the company’s boss is a surge in wealth.
The latest Bloomberg Billionaires Index shows that Huang Zheng, founder of Poundland, is worth $63.1 billion, Jack Ma $51.2 billion, Tencent’s boss Ma Huateng $56 billion and Baidu’s founder Robin Li $5.3 billion.
Two “mountains” weighing down on Chinese workers
Li Qiang, a China labor watcher, said Chinese workers are not guaranteed legal working hours because they are burdened with two “mountains”. He said, “In fact, Chinese workers have two mountains on their backs, one is the mountain under the Chinese Communist Party‘s dictatorship, which maintains the interests of the Communist Party’s authoritarian elite by squeezing labor. The other big mountain is the multinational corporations in China. In order for China to develop and take the path of a strong country, to introduce foreign advanced technology and management experience, the interests of labor must be sacrificed. Labor is exchanged for foreign capital to enter China.”
Just as Liu Jin set himself on fire for unsuccessful efforts to recover his salary and the sudden death of a Poundland delivery worker from overwork caused media attention, a draft legal aid law was submitted to the 25th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People’s Congress for initial consideration on Jan. 20. According to the draft, for matters such as requests for compensation for personal injury in work-related accidents, traffic accidents, food and drug safety accidents and medical accidents, requests for alimony, maintenance and support payments, and requests for payment of labor remuneration, you can also apply to legal aid agencies for legal aid.
Teng Biao, a human rights lawyer, said it is certainly a good thing if more employees at the bottom of society can get legal aid after China’s new draft law on legal aid, but he believes that the authorities’ legal aid law can have a limited effect.
He said, “Because in many cases, it is not only a matter of legal services or legal advice, but also involves the corruption of the public authorities, the whole channel of relief, whether it involves arbitration, petition, letter, or judicial channels such as the court, these basic institutional arrangements, there are problems. Therefore, the effect of legal aid, very limited.”
Teng Biao pointed out that China has introduced various laws in the past decades, and the legal system has been improving and progressing. But in general, China is still far from being a country governed by the rule of law. The key is that such a political system is antithetical to the rule of law,” he said. Specifically, the Chinese government and the Communist Party are above the law, and if such a fundamental system remains intact, it is useless to introduce as many laws and regulations as possible.”
Observers point out that the situation of China’s disadvantaged and underprivileged people protecting their rights and interests through legal means is expected to improve to some extent in the future, but, like other existing laws in China, it remains not only to be seen but also questionable how and how the relevant laws will be implemented and whether they can truly protect the legitimate rights and interests of the people involved.
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