Crowds of Chinese piled on to trains yesterday in the biggest migration of humanity on the planet as hundreds of millions travel back to their home provinces for the Lunar New Year.
But some can't afford a family holiday. Many of the poor migrant workers who have flooded into China's cities have been cheated of their wages by their bosses, despite growing government efforts to stop the fraud.
The shadow of sickness has also threatened to dampen spirits this year.
Most Chinese were set to spend yesterday night, the eve of Spring Festival, at home with their families.
But migrant workers slumped over in the shadows of the Beijing railway station yesterday were not going home to their families.
"How can we go home? The boss ran off and didn't give us a cent," snapped Yang Jianguo, a 48-year-old from Hebei province sprawled on the floor.
Breathing fumes of sorghum-based moonshine, he launched into a classic account -- dubious builders, fly-by-night contractors, callous officials -- repeated yearly like a broken record by down-in-the-mouth migrants who fail to collect wages.
This Lunar New Year, China's new Communist leaders are trying as hard as ever to change that, observers say.
End-of-year gross domestic product figures announced on Tuesday saw year-on-year growth of 9.1 percent.
But many of the rural migrants who build China's highways and villas and contribute to that impressive growth are mired in poverty and debt, often because they received no wages.
Hu and Wen have both issued orders to find ways to dig workers and peasants out of debt, official media said.
State television has saturated the airwaves with melodramas about people finally collecting their unpaid wages.
Some must run bureaucratic obstacle courses before breaking through red tape, others simply wait, like one Shanxi province man who has just been paid for work he did on a road in 1993 to 1994.
Populist pressure in the government and state media are making a difference, official figures indicate. In Beijing alone, more than 99 percent of wages-in-arrears on record from last year had been reimbursed.
Try telling that to Yang and his friends.
"Lies," he said. "There is no law to protect us."
Zhang Yazhou was sitting in the passenger seat of her Tesla Model 3 when she said she heard her father’s panicked voice: The brakes do not work. Approaching a red light, her father swerved around two cars before plowing into a sport utility vehicle and a sedan, and crashing into a large concrete barrier. Stunned, Zhang gazed at the deflating airbag in front of her. She could never have imagined what was to come: Tesla Inc sued her for defamation for complaining publicly about the vehicles brakes — and won. A Chinese court ordered Zhang to pay more than US$23,000 in
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that its investment plan in Arizona is going according to schedule, following a local media report claiming that the company is planning to break ground on its third wafer fab in the US in June. In a statement, TSMC said it does not comment on market speculation, but that its investments in Arizona are proceeding well. TSMC is investing more than US$65 billion in Arizona to build three advanced wafer fabs. The first one has started production using the 4-nanometer (nm) process, while the second one would start mass production using the
‘NO DISRUPTION’: A US trade association said that it was ready to work with the US administration to streamline the program’s requirements and achieve shared goals The White House is seeking to renegotiate US CHIPS and Science Act awards and has signaled delays to some upcoming semiconductor disbursements, two sources familiar with the matter told reporters. The people, along with a third source, said that the new US administration is reviewing the projects awarded under the 2022 law, meant to boost US domestic semiconductor output with US$39 billion in subsidies. Washington plans to renegotiate some of the deals after assessing and changing current requirements, the sources said. The extent of the possible changes and how they would affect agreements already finalized was not immediately clear. It was not known
A TAIWAN DEAL: TSMC is in early talks to fully operate Intel’s US semiconductor factories in a deal first raised by Trump officials, but Intel’s interest is uncertain Broadcom Inc has had informal talks with its advisers about making a bid for Intel Corp’s chip-design and marketing business, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Nothing has been submitted to Intel and Broadcom could decide not to pursue a deal, according to the Journal. Bloomberg News earlier reported that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is in early talks for a controlling stake in Intel’s factories at the request of officials at US President Donald Trump’s administration, as the president looks to boost US manufacturing and maintain the country’s leadership in critical technologies. Trump officials raised the