I wonder if killing them gave them a sense of relief?
This footage captures an incident from February 13, 2023, in Guangdong Province, China, where a 38-year-old temporary worker at an electronic components factory slashed and killed three people, including his supervisor. While police have not disclosed specific details, citing a “personal grudge,” employees near the scene reported that he had been voicing complaints about his wages and working conditions. The man was arrested at the scene—but what was the point of the killing?
Video 1
Video 2/Man arrested by police
Discrimination based on place of origin that spread following wage disputes.
Reports regarding the background of this incident vary. Some accounts state that while the hourly wage quoted upon hiring through a labor agency amounted to approximately 4,000 yuan per month, the worker actually received only 400 yuan, with the majority of the pay being withheld; conversely, other analyses suggest that the perpetrator had left the factory more than six months prior and was motivated by a personal grudge against a floor manager rather than a wage dispute.
In China, a 2011 amendment to the Criminal Law made “malicious non-payment of wages” a criminal offense, and Guangdong Province established criteria for prosecution based on the amount and duration of the unpaid wages. Nevertheless, collective protests by workers stemming from factory closures and unpaid wages continue to occur at a rate of over a thousand incidents annually, and the employment model involving labor agencies is considered structurally prone to wage-related conflicts.
Furthermore, following reports of the incident, it was revealed that factories across Guangdong Province began refusing to hire workers from Guizhou Province—despite their lack of involvement in the incident—leading to concerns that discrimination based on place of origin has emerged as a new social issue.
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