The European Union has unexpectedly found support within China as it prepares for trade negotiations with Beijing. Chinese workers are expressing their dissatisfaction on social media regarding excessive overtime, which critics outside the country argue gives Chinese exporters an unfair advantage, according to reports.
Last year, the EU faced a trade deficit with China of nearly one billion euros daily. The bloc has set a deadline of October for Beijing to address growing imbalances that it claims are severely impacting domestic industries and leading to mass layoffs across Europe.
One of the EU’s primary concerns is the weak domestic demand within China, which is partly attributed to slow wage increases and inadequate employee protections. This situation results in reduced imports from China, including those from Europe, while compelling Chinese manufacturers to seek external markets.
Amid these tensions, an older tool from Brussels—EU regulations on forced labor—has garnered increasing attention on China’s heavily censored internet. The EU’s Forced Labor Regulation, adopted in 2024 and set to take effect in December 2027, prohibits products made through forced or involuntary labor, including excessive overtime.
This regulation resonates with many Chinese workers who have long complained about the ‘996 culture,’ characterized by 12-hour shifts, six days a week.
Censorship in China Erases Messages
“I believe the EU is right to sanction forced labor. Who agrees and who doesn’t?” stated a message recently posted on RedNote, a Chinese platform similar to Instagram. The post quickly garnered nearly 3,000 likes before being deleted.
Commenters expressed support for sanctions against Beijing and shared information on how to file complaints with EU authorities.
Analysts suggest the online interest in this issue reflects growing concerns about the weakening labor market and increasing pressure on employers facing deflationary price wars fueled by overproduction and competition in export markets.
“Some workers have noticed that while companies may not be particularly concerned about an individual dispute regarding overtime in the domestic market, they may be much more worried about losing access to Western markets,” said Mingwei Liu, director at the Center for Global Labor and Employment at Rutgers University.
The Chinese Ministry of Human Resources and the cyberspace administration, which oversees online content, did not respond to requests for comments.
Diverging Interests of Chinese Exporters and Workers
On Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, videos tagged “EU complaint site” and “EU complaint procedures” have accumulated over 200,000 views. One video explaining the official complaint filing process received 5,442 likes and 714 shares.
Xiao Qiang, founder of China Digital Times, noted that other Chinese platforms seem to limit the public dissemination of such messages. China Digital Times is a US-based publication that monitors censorship phenomena in China.
Xiao added that the emergence of this topic on social media, despite censorship and extensive restrictions, indicates that many Chinese do not see exporters’ interests as diverging from national and workers’ interests.
“History will not remember the number of views, but this was the first time someone directly connected the internal grievances of workers with external enforcement mechanisms,” he stated.
A source within the European Commission told Reuters that the EU’s executive departments have received informal complaints regarding violations of workers’ rights, including those related to excessive overtime. However, the Commission has not recently observed a significant increase in the number of complaints, according to the European official.
Some Chinese social media users have also suggested filing complaints in Washington.
In July, the U.S. imposed tariffs of up to 12.5% on goods from 60 trading partners, including the EU and China, citing their failure to verify or limit the use of forced labor.
Average Weekly Working Hours in China
Official data shows that Chinese workers average over 48 hours a week, surpassing the legal limit of 44 hours, suggesting that workers’ rights are poorly protected and enforced.
Last year, some Chinese companies, including home appliance manufacturer Midea, announced mandatory end-of-work hours.
Lu Ming, a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the country’s main political advisory body, called for strengthened worker protections in a March article, warning of potential negative reactions from trading partners.
“Other countries may consider that the competitiveness of Chinese products comes from excessively intense labor and poor quality of life,” Lu was quoted as saying by the CPPCC website.
“This affects not only China’s image but could also lead to the emergence of concrete trade barriers,” the Chinese official cautioned.
