{"id":12881,"date":"2026-06-29T12:24:44","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T11:24:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/?p=12881"},"modified":"2026-06-29T12:29:33","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T11:29:33","slug":"claim-about-chinas-996-work-schedule-only-partially-correct","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/2026\/06\/29\/claim-about-chinas-996-work-schedule-only-partially-correct\/","title":{"rendered":"Claim About China\u2019s \u201c996 Work Schedule\u201d Only Partially Correct"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Original article<\/a> (in Slovenian) was published on 24\/6\/2026; Author: An\u0111ela Makitan<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Maja Veseli\u010d from the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana explained that “996 work culture” is a colloquial term that gained traction in Chinese internet companies about a decade ago. It describes “expectations tied to corporate work culture.” While local legislation permits overtime, a work schedule running from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., six days a week, does not comply with the law.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On May 20, the newspaper Delo ran an article<\/a> online about an episode of its podcast Svet v skodelici \u010daja<\/em> (The World in a Teacup), featuring Zorana Bakovi\u0107, a journalist for the newspaper, translator, and expert on Chinese politics and culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three days later, the episode<\/a> was uploaded to YouTube. In it, Bakovi\u0107 claimed that the “996 work culture”, which means working from nine in the morning until nine at night, six days a week, had been quite common in China until recently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to her, the country’s youth are now resisting this to a certain extent, “starting to complain that they do not want to live this way,” even though Jack Ma, the owner of the Chinese retail and e-commerce giant Alibaba, stated that such a work schedule is a great privilege and an advantage for Chinese society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bakovi\u0107 made this claim in response to the host’s comment that China’s economic success is built on significantly more work, less vacation time, and weaker labour rights compared to Slovenia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maja Veseli\u010d, a professor at the Department of Asian Studies at the Faculty of Arts, who teaches courses on contemporary Chinese politics and economy, explained to Razkrinkavanje.si that the term “996 work schedule,” which denotes a frequent or even established schedule in internet companies, entered widespread use in China about ten years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She pointed out that this is a colloquial expression that does not appear in official documents, such as labour dispute rulings, and that a distinction must be made between this concept, excessive work practices, and labour legislation. Today, the term is also used colloquially in industries such as logistics and delivery. It denotes “expectations associated with corporate work culture,” such as excessive work as a prerequisite for a promotion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to her explanation, long working hours with unpaid overtime began appearing in China as early as the 1990s in export-oriented manufacturing, construction, and other industries where rural migrants constituted a large share of the workforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rural workers resided in cities illegally, as they lacked registered permanent residency, which otherwise serves as the basis for a range of social rights. The scope of such work gradually increased from the late 1990s onward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Veseli\u010d also explained that the onset of workdays lasting 12 hours of longer in China\u2019s high-tech internet sector is “difficult to pinpoint precisely.” She estimates that the rapid rise of this sector began at the turn of the millennium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“From around 2010, excessive work became increasingly common in private companies \u2013 both giants and startups \u2013 that were or are developing platforms, applications, and other products.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to her, excessive work was expected of employees at least in certain departments, projects, or periods, and elsewhere at the level of the entire company. “Namely, by strongly incentivizing development and innovation, the state created an extremely competitive business environment.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Information <\/a>published on BaiduWiki, a Chinese online encyclopaedia created with artificial intelligence, to which Veseli\u010d directed Razkrinkavanje.si, shows that such working hours triggered employee protests in 2016 when introduced at the company 58.com.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a paper<\/a> published in 2023 in the scientific journal China Perspectives, two Chinese welfare experts described the case of the online campaign “996 ICU.” In the spring of 2019, more than two hundred thousand Chinese citizens employed in internet companies complained about the “996 work schedule.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They warned that it was too long, but to no avail. Despite efforts by some companies to improve work-life balance, long working hours remained common.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the Chinese Labour Law<\/a>, the current version of which has been in force since 2009, the working hours of employees may not exceed eight hours per day, and the average workweek may not exceed 44 hours. The law allows overtime work, but only in consultation with trade union and workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chinese law limits the scope of such work to a maximum of three hours of overtime per day or 36 hours of overtime per month. Workers must also receive higher pay for overtime work and are entitled to a mandatory day of rest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A comparison similar to Bakovi\u0107’s was also made by Marko Lotri\u010d, president of the National Council and the Focus party, in an episode of the Slovenian Business Club podcast<\/a> published last November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a discussion on what Slovenia can learn from China, he stated that Chinese productivity is reflected in their 11-hour workday, six days a week, and fewer vacation days. “Then you seriously ask yourself how we can be competitive,” he commented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response to our findings, Bakovi\u0107 explained that professor Veseli\u010d’s explanation regarding the establishment of this work schedule in internet companies is true, but in her view, it also prevailed in factories and enterprises in other industries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to her, it is “likewise logical that younger and more educated Chinese, who mostly work in the technology sector, were the main ones to resist such a ‘work culture,’ as many have called 996.” That is because in this sector, the number of suicides among young workers had risen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also explained that alongside the 996 work schedule, many other illegal practices exist in China, which the state nevertheless encourages out of self-interest. Trade unions mostly protect the state interest, as they are not independent but part of the Chinese Communist Party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As she pointed out, the 996 work schedule is not limited to China but also appears in other Asian countries, such as South Korea and Japan: “Asia works extremely hard. This will be a major problem for Europe.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The claim that the “996 work schedule” was quite common in China until recently is rated as a grey zone. This phenomenon started gaining traction in Chinese internet companies about a decade ago. It is a colloquial term that does not appear in official documents. Furthermore, based on the expert opinions obtained by Razkrinkavanje.si, it is impossible to unambiguously determine when this phenomenon spread, or when young people began to resist it. The claim that the local youth have risen up against this work culture to some extent and begun to complain about it is rated as a grey zone as well. Workers there complained about it as early as 2016. More than two hundred thousand Chinese internet company workers also protested in 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Original article (in Slovenian) was published on 24\/6\/2026; Author: An\u0111ela Makitan Maja Veseli\u010d from the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana explained that “996 work culture” is a colloquial term that gained traction in Chinese internet companies about a decade ago. It describes “expectations tied to corporate work culture.” While local legislation permits overtime, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":12882,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[316],"tags":[823,71,821,822],"class_list":["post-12881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fact-checks","tag-996-work-schedule","tag-china","tag-labour-law","tag-workers"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12881"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12881\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12888,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12881\/revisions\/12888"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}