"Unpaid and angry, some Chinese workers ditch holidays to protest", 4 Feb 2016

…This year, laborer Fan Fu and 20 or so colleagues working on the Zixia Garden apartment complex in Hebei province…have camped in the offices of the property developer's subcontractor, demanding almost a year's unpaid wages…With China's economy growing at its slowest in 25 years, more workers face Fan's predicament and labor unrest is on the rise…The developer, Qianan City Xinyuan Real Estate, did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment on the protests and the unpaid wages. The Qian'an government said they were looking into the issue but declined to give details…

The government is concerned that protests over issues like unpaid wages could spill over into broader dissatisfaction at its rule, as it has derived much legitimacy over the past decades from delivering a higher standard of living. Before the holiday, Beijing issued a notice calling on local authorities to "seriously investigate all incidents of wage arrears, so that migrant workers would be paid in a timely manner and in full," the state-run Workers Daily newspaper reported.

Over the past few months, however, authorities have arrested at least seven labor activists in Guangdong province in the largest crackdown on organized labor in China…