On December 10th, a screenshot of a WeChat group chat where a man claimed to be a 19-year-old deputy director of an office in a state-owned enterprise sparked heated discussions online.
In the screenshot shared by a netizen on social media, the man mentioned that he was arranged by his uncle, a department-level cadre, to work as the deputy director and safety officer at the Guiyang Hydroelectric Ninth Bureau (officially known as “China Water Resources and Hydropower Ninth Engineering Bureau Co., LTD”, also called Electric Construction Ninth Bureau).
The man revealed that despite being only 19 years old, he enjoyed the same benefits as regular staff, with a monthly salary ranging from 6,000 to 8,000 yuan (Chinese currency). He mentioned casually working for 3 hours a day, browsing TikTok after work, and leaving promptly at 6 p.m. He even shared a video of the office in the group chat.
Amid the challenging job market, this chat screenshot quickly drew attention online.
The Ninth Bureau later debunked the claim on its official Weibo account, stating that it was false and had been reported to the authorities. A staff member from the bureau’s human resources department clarified to Dahe Daily that there is no established position like the one described and that all employees sign labor contracts. Another staff member responded, saying there is no employee matching the description given, and that they are all very busy with work every day.
Some netizens dismissed the claims as “definitely untrue” and “absolutely not happening.” However, many others viewed such occurrences as a “normal phenomenon” in China, with instances being quite common in the past and even to this day, describing it as a historical recurrence not worth being overly surprised about.
Furthermore, some netizens shared personal anecdotes to illustrate similar situations, such as students in a small technical school in a county with only a few hundred students yet having over five thousand people associated and receiving salaries. Others recounted stories of individuals clocking in briefly at work then spending the day elsewhere but still receiving full pay, citing these cases as not uncommon within various sectors.
There were even comments highlighting instances of adolescents as young as fourteen or fifteen, still in school, officially employed with salaries but not required to work, with some netizens expressing more astonishment at the reactions of others to such occurrences than to the situations themselves.