In recent years, the Chinese economy has been continuously declining, with local governments of the CCP experiencing sharp decreases in land sale revenues, leading to financial strain and impacting various municipal departments including sanitation. During the last week of 2024, the cities of Haicheng in Liaoning, Nanning in Guangxi, and Xi’an in Shaanxi successively experienced strikes by sanitation workers due to delayed wages caused by government financial strain, sparking public attention.
On December 31st, a video released by residents of Teng’ao Town in Haicheng City, under the administration of Anshan City in Liaoning Province, depicted sanitation workers on strike due to unpaid wages, resulting in overflowing street garbage bins and litter scattered around due to the wind. The video highlighted the urgent need for the issue to be resolved promptly.
The video showed garbage piling up on the streets with no one to clean it, plastic bags and paper scraps flying around in the wind. A man in the video remarked, “Not paying workers their wages, sanitation workers are getting anxious.”
Moreover, photos shared by local residents displayed filled-up garbage bins on the streets and within neighborhoods, some overflowing onto the ground. One resident captioned his photo: “Teng’ao, my beloved hometown.”
Near the Good Life Produce Market in the area, the streets were also littered with garbage, left unattended. Local residents commented on these short videos, attributing the lack of cleaning and disposal of garbage on the streets and within neighborhoods to sanitation workers being unpaid.
In response to the situation, government officials in Teng’ao Town, Haicheng City, attributed the wage delays to the failure of higher authorities to allocate funds downwards.
Not limited to Liaoning, several regions in China have been affected in various municipal sectors, including sanitation, due to government financial strains.
A video surfaced on December 27th showing sanitation workers in part of Laitang Town, Binyang County, Nanning, Guangxi, collectively going on strike due to unpaid wages, resulting in piles of garbage on the streets, impacting the city’s appearance.
Observers mentioned that the streets shown in the video were part of Jinlong Avenue in Laitang Town, where sanitation workers receive monthly salaries of around 2,000 yuan, have been on strike for several days due to months of unpaid wages.
The Deputy Director of the Environmental Sanitation Management Station in Laitang Town confirmed the situation, stating that wages for sanitation workers are not directly paid by the management station but are allocated by the county’s finance department.
On December 17th, a Xi’an resident reported a significant number of sanitation workers protesting for their wages near Huqing Palace in Lintong District, gaining public attention.
A staff member from the Environmental Sanitation Center of the Urban Management Bureau in Lintong District explained, “The sanitation workers are outsourced, the government lacks funds, so the third party has delayed salary payments, resulting in a backlog of five months’ worth of wages for the sanitation workers.”
In recent years, the CCP’s fiscal revenue has been consistently declining, prompting authorities to issue multiple warnings to all government levels to “tighten their belts” and prepare for “hard times.” This has been described as a long-term policy guideline.
According to data released by the CCP’s Ministry of Finance on December 27th, as of the end of November 2024, local government debt nationwide amounted to a staggering 46.5 trillion yuan. Analysts suggest that when including implicit debts, the total debts of CCP local governments could be even higher.