China's workplace is undergoing a silent revolution.
In January, home appliance giant Midea Group introduced six new work rules, including a ban on after-hours meetings and performative overtime, mandatory office light shutdowns at 6:20 p.m., and a prohibition on employees returning to work after dinner.
In March, leading drone maker DJI launched a “No Overtime Allowed” campaign, capping overtime at 9:00 p.m. and enforcing a three-step process where department heads, project managers, and HR staff urge employees to leave.
Another manufacturing giant, Haier, mandated a two-day weekend in February. Employees can’t work on Saturdays, the cafeteria stops serving meals on weekends, and weekday overtime is limited to three hours per day.
These moves signal a collective retreat from China’s 996 work culture—once seen as a competitive advantage. Behind this shift are mounting global compliance pressures, a shrinking workforce, and a growing focus on efficiency.
The 996 work culture—working from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week—was long regarded as the driving force behind China’s manufacturing and tech boom.
Data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics show that since 2015, the average weekly working hours have steadily increased, reaching 49 hours in 2023—the highest in nearly two decades.
But this high-intensity model is taking a toll. First, there’s the health cost: 80% of sudden death cases among Chinese workers under 35 are linked to overwork.
Then there’s the crisis of plummeting marriage and birth rates. Government data show that in 2024, marriage registrations fell 20.5% from 2023, and births have declined for six consecutive years since 2017. China’s total fertility rate now stands at just 1.3—well below the international warning line of 1.5 for five years in a row.
A key catalyst in this shift is the EU Ban on Forced Labor Products, taking effect at the end of 2024. The regulation classifies excessive overtime as forced labor, meaning non-compliant companies risk having their products banned from the EU market.
For China’s export-dependent businesses, this is a serious threat. The EU is China’s third-largest export market, importing €517.8 billion worth of goods from China in 2024. Companies like DJI, Midea, and Haier rely heavily on EU sales.
Meanwhile, domestic policies are shifting, too. The 2025 government work report, for the first time, proposed a crackdown on rat race competition, widely seen as a move to strengthen labor protections and regulate corporate practices. Some local governments are taking it further—Shenzhen is piloting a law granting workers the “right to disconnect”, delaying work-related messages after hours.
This anti-rat race movement, led by the tech and manufacturing sectors, has been widely welcomed. But skeptics warn that forcing employees to leave on time could be just for show. If workloads don’t actually decrease, overtime might just go underground—pushing workers to take work home, unpaid.