Death by a thousand job cuts: the human cost of China’s zombie firms
Residents of Tonghua in northeast China who lost their jobs when the city’s state-owned steel plant got into difficulties share their stories
Mr and Mrs Chen, both in their late 50s, opened a small bakery three years ago after they quit the nearby state-owned steel plant where they had worked for three decades. There may be a future in running a bun shop, but not at a dying state-run behemoth.
The Tonghua Iron & Steel plant opened in 1958 during China’s experiment with industrialisation, a period known as the Great Leap Forward. As the biggest state steelmaker in Jilin province, on the border with North Korea, the plant provided workers with cradle-to-grave welfare coverage and a sense of belonging, ownership and pride.
But not any more.
On the afternoon of the South China Morning Post’s visit, there were not many customers in the Chens’ bakery - a converted front room in their ground-floor flat - but the couple said running their own small business was far better than working at the steel plant.
Mr Chen described the factory as “half dead” and could barely disguise his contempt for its leaders, whom he blamed for the demise of his former workplace.
