One month after 23 workers died of carbon monoxide poisoning in a Chongqing coal mine, China’s State Administration of Coal Mine Safety announced that 2020 had been one of the safest years on record for the industry, with no “exceptionally serious” accidents.

An engineer employed at e-commerce platform Pinduoduo reportedly jumped to his death on Saturday, 9 January, after unexpectedly returning home on leave. It was the second sudden death of a Pinduoduo employee in ten days, highlighting the extreme pressure faced by workers in China’s ultra-competitive tech sector.

Thousands of temporary workers staged a mass protest outside the Pegatron factory in Shanghai on 19 December after managers at the Taiwan-owned electronics company ordered them to relocate to another facility in Kunshan.

For the first time in over a decade, none of China’s provinces and regions announced a minimum wage increase this year, and several regions implemented an official minimum wage freeze.

Twenty-three workers died of carbon monoxide poisoning on Friday, 4 December, after being sent into a disused coal mine in Chongqing to salvage old mining equipment. 

All coal mines in the southern city of Leiyang have suspended production after 13 miners were trapped in a flooded mine shaft at the Yuanjiangshan Coal Mine on 29 November. 

This year’s Singles Day shopping bonanza on 11 November has once again exposed the appalling conditions delivery workers labour under in order to meet consumer demand. Moreover, there are reports that working conditions are actually getting worse as the industry develops. 

Throughout much of the last decade, Shenzhen was one of the main centres of worker activism in China. Today, the picture is very different.