Chinese workers return from holiday to find factories emptied, owners gone

Sun: Sun is an unidentified woman from Yongkang, Zhejiang Province, who described the situation of her parents and other workers at an insulated-cup factory. She said the owner disappeared while workers had gone without wages and guarded the factory to prevent equipment from being removed. Dong: Dong is an unidentified worker from Putian, Fujian Province, who formerly worked at a small shoe factory. He reported that employees were owed wages after the owner said the business had no money, while the factory had not formally declared bankruptcy. Yang: Yang is an unidentified woman from Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, who reported that the owner of a local gym disappeared during the holiday. Her account shows that abrupt business closures and unpaid obligations were reported beyond the manufacturing sector. Zhao: Zhao is an unidentified temporary worker from Xiaogan, Hubei Province, whose surname was reported by The Epoch Times. He said the hardware and plastics factory where he worked had been emptied and that the owner had disappeared while wage payments were repeatedly delayed. Factory Owners: Factory owners are private business operators responsible for managing production sites, employees, and wage payments. In the reported cases, some owners allegedly removed equipment or abandoned businesses during the holiday, leaving workers seeking unpaid wages and information about their employers’ whereabouts. Chinese Workers: Chinese workers are employees in the country’s manufacturing, service, and other sectors who depend on employers for wages and legal employment protections. They are central to this report because workers in several provinces returned from the National Day holiday to find workplaces emptied, owners missing, and wages unpaid. Verification: The reported worker accounts and circulating videos were not independently verified by The Epoch Times, so they document allegations and reported experiences rather than confirmed conditions at every named workplace. Wage Arrears: Recent reporting describes unpaid-wage disputes in several Chinese regions ahead of and during the National Day holiday, indicating that the problem extends beyond the individual factories in this report. Holiday Closures: Chinese-language reports published during the holiday described workers returning to find equipment, workstations, and managers gone, broadly consistent with the accounts summarized by The Epoch Times.