China’s workers complain of being ‘beasts of burden’

There’s a new social media buzzword making the rounds in China that is a shorthand way for workers to complain about being overworked and exploited — “oxen and horses.”

The metaphor has gone viral again recently with a video clip of talk show star Xu Zhisheng quipping about his company: “So what, are you gonna milk me now?”

While China has long been known for its unforgiving office culture, as the post-lockdown economy flags and jobs get harder to come by, those who are in work find that more and more is being asked of them, leading them to describe themselves as beasts of burden.

“Treatment of workers is getting worse and worse during the economic crisis,” a worker in the solar energy industry who gave only the pseudonym Jiang Ling for fear of reprisals told RFA Mandarin by email.

“Oxen and horses is a popular buzzword in China … which expresses how badly workers are being treated.”

Long working hours, low pay and no way to stand up for their rights were the most frequently cited complaints by workers who spoke to Radio Free Asia in recent interviews.

A white-collar employee with more than 10 years’ experience in the state-owned and private sector, who gave only the nickname Amesis for fear of reprisals, said both sectors are as bad as each other when it comes to wringing the last drops of productivity out of employees.

“The worst thing about private companies is the boss’ arrogant attitude towards their employees,” he said. “Private companies will expect you to do overtime if they get a request from another department.”

“But in state-owned enterprises, you’re treated like beasts of burden — expected to produce a report within a specified timeframe,” Amesis said. “In those companies, most of the tasks they assign to you are outside of your job description.”

‘No room to say no’

Regardless of the company structure, “requests” from management are non-negotiable.

“There’s no room to say no, and no basic rights as an employee,” he said, adding that at least state-owned companies pay overtime, although at the same rate as regular wages.

Dong Ming, who has held both white- and blue-collar roles since entering the workplace in 2005, said the hours are pretty long regardless of the type of labor you do.

On the shop floor of a listed flooring manufacturer, Dong used to work “8.00 a.m. to 8.00 p.m. or 8.00 p.m. to 8.00 a.m. two weeks on day shift and two weeks on nights,” he said.

A 2024 survey by human resources company Zhaopin found that nearly 70% of white-collar and blue-collar workers put in more than eight hours a day, with scant difference between them. And 34% of respondents described themselves as beasts of burden, or “oxen and horses.”

Zhang Chao, a former national marketing director of a Chinese brewery, said there is little choice for workers faced with ever-increasing demands on their time.

“In some low-end jobs, it’s pretty easy to recruit people, especially in the current environment,” Zhang told RFA Mandarin in a recent interview. “A lot of people competing on the bottom end of the ladder for basic jobs are unemployed.”

In the private company where Zhang used to work, there was no such thing as overtime pay, and pressure to put in long hours is greater the further you are down the pecking order.

But there are also oxen and horses among senior management, he said.

“It depends on what kind of division of management labor you have with your boss,” he said. “If he trusts you, he will leave a lot of stuff to you — that makes you kind of a senior beast of burden.”

‘Wolf culture’

Amesis agreed, saying managers are no more able to resist the demands of their employer than workers further down the company hierarchy.

“The managers report directly to the boss, and they’re the ones who get scolded if there are problems,” he said. 

For Dong, who has put in shifts in restaurants, coal mines, factories and opticians, most workplaces don’t treat workers like human beings.

Even at the opticians, where the job was somewhat easier, his boss used his lowly background to belittle and criticize him.

“He told me that people like me with a poor background are incompetent and would never achieve anything,” Dong said. “He looked down on poor people, and saw them as narrow-minded and ignorant of everything, like fine dining.”

The 12-hours shifts at the flooring factory left him exhausted at the time, but he didn’t see himself as exploited until later.

“I was a little self-critical that I probably wasn’t up to it,” he said.

The predatory attitude of employers towards those they hire has been dubbed “wolf culture” in the Chinese workplace.

“Wolf culture basically means that everyone has to work together as a team, work overtime, and put up with things being tough,” Zhang said. “A team is only allowed to speak with one voice.”

Anyone who steps out of line, even to raise a minor objection, is seen as the problem, even if the repercussions don’t come immediately.

Bias toward companies

This means that few Chinese employees are willing to put their neck on the line.

“Even if you open your mouth and your manager politely refuses, if you go back a second time, the outcome may not be very good for you,” Zhang said. “Sometimes the manager will even start to target you.”

And when that happens, there is little redress outside the workplace.

“[China is] institutionally biased in favor of companies, and the government bears the most responsibility for this,” a human rights lawyer who gave only the pseudonym Sam Wong for fear of reprisals told Radio Free Asia.

Most government departments are pretty indifferent to the concept of workers’ rights, said Wong, who has handled a lot of employment-related cases during his career.

“I have worked on cases of gender discrimination in employment, after some workers complained to the Labor Bureau, but they didn’t think it was a big deal, and wouldn’t accept the complaint,” he said.

And the lower down the company hierarchy you are, the less likely anyone will listen to you.

“[Lower-ranking workers] don’t have much knowledge of the law, can’t afford lawyers, and there’s no legal aid for labor cases,” Wong said. “Workers are at a disadvantage.”

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Dong tried to lodge a complaint about his emotionally abusive boss with his local Labor Bureau, but to no avail.

“They just said, yeah, we know about your situation, but so what? We won’t be taking any further action,” he said.

Dong later realized he never had a chance, given that the boss of the opticians was a member of the local People’s Congress, and very well connected.

“He knew officials in a lot of different government departments,” he said.

Weak trade unions

According to Zhang, that’s often true of any company.

“All companies with a little bit of power have varying degrees of connection with government departments,” Zhang said. These often cozy relationships enable companies to get their labor issues resolved with ease, while employees are left to exhaust themselves with pointless complaints and petitioning procedures.

Part of the problem is that corporate China has never had a strong sense of contractual obligation, nor a reliable mechanism for negotiating labor disputes. 

All official trade unions are controlled by the government, while the authorities frequently crack down with force on workers who organize via unofficial labor unions.

“The local government and the so-called trade unions do nothing to help workers,” Jiang Ling wrote in his email to Radio Free Asia. “They are undemocratic and obey the orders of the capitalists.”

“The trade unions will easily approve any policy that is unfavorable to workers, like reducing wages, extending overtime, job relocation, firing employees and stopping production,” he said.

Li Qiang, head of the U.S.-based group China Labor Watch, said that while the Chinese Communist Party claims to be led by the working class, Chinese workers have very little power.

“It’s actually a dictatorship over the workers,” Li said. “Nominally, it gives them a little bit of face, but for that you have to bleed, and pay a price. It’s always the workers who have to make concessions.”

Zhang agreed.

“To put it bluntly, you’re just a beast of burden,” he said. 

Translated by Luisetta Mudie.