Explained: How 'zero COVID' workers are causing unrest in China

In the eastern city of Hangzhou, several COVID workers climbed on the roof of a test kit factory and threatened to jump to protest unpaid furloughs. At a separate test manufacturing plant in the city, workers protested for days over a wage dispute After China’s abrupt reversal of “zero COVID” restrictions, the nation’s vast machinery of virus surveillance and testing collapsed, even as infections and deaths surged. In the eastern city of Hangzhou, witnesses said several workers climbed on the roof of a test kit factory and threatened to jump to protest unpaid furloughs. Many among China’s armies of “big whites,” low-level government workers charged with enforcing COVID restrictions and named after their signature white hazmat suits, have been let go, muddying an already volatile labour market.