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Article: Peking fears a backlash from `resting' millions
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- June 20, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1996 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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At 3pm each afternoon, Zhang Yuzhi parks her tricycle cart on a
busy street in east Peking, perches on her stool, and waits
hopefully for customers to rummage through the mound of cheap vests
and longjohns she has brought for sale.
"It is really difficult," she sighed. "But I am one of the lucky
ones. There are still a lot of people who do not have any work at
all."
A year ago, Ms Zhang, 35, was one of about 500 employees - about
a third of the workforce - at Peking's Number 2 Knitwear Factory
"sent home" because of the dire financial situation at the
overmanned enterprise. Since their expulsion the "resting"
employees have received a monthly subsistence "wage" of just 170
yuan (pounds ...