A post written on China's social media by an employee of the Hangzhou municipal government has become
the talk of China, and after December 30 when Nikkei Asia reported it gone global. She wrote: "Listen to
this. My annual pay is going to be slashed by around 25%. That's 50,000 yuan ($7,850) less. How can I live?"
No official announcement has been made about reductions in salaries of public servants in the provinces, but
similar sharp pay cuts in affluent regions such as Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shanghai, and Tianjin have also come
to light. Nikkei Asia reported that instead of the pay cut, what surprised many Chinese was the revelation
that a nonexecutive worker in the capital of Zhejiang Province was receiving an annual income of 200,000
yuan (US$ 31,000). When the Chinese authorities noticed the post, they deleted it and other related posts,
but by then it had already gone viral.
(Comment: It had become known earlier this July that many provinces had started withdrawing the
'performance bonuses' paid to employees. By July/August they had been withdrawn in at least 8 provinces
including the more prosperous coastal provinces on the eastern seaboard.)
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