China On The Brink: Widespread Looting, Rural Revolts Erupt Across The Country

A group of farmers recently appeared in the North China Plain. Video footage shows a massive peanut field after harvest packed with people. The scene was noisy and chaotic as people bent down or squatted, using buckets, bags and baskets to compete for peanuts left scattered on the ground. Some people even pushed and shoved each other. Because there were so many people, some were even forced into a river at the edge of the field. As the autumn harvest season began, many farmers in Henan, Hebei and other areas went to fields owned by large-scale growers to collect leftover peanuts. After the video spread online, one person commented, What's going on here? Even a movie wouldn't dare film something like this. Similar incidents have occurred in other areas. On September 1st, in Xinjiang, Hubei province, a grower named Wang said that during peanut harvesting season, nearby villagers rushed into his fields, causing heavy losses. Wang said the peanut fields were contracted and owned by him, and nearby villagers knew the crop's growing cycle. During the harvest season, they came to collect peanuts. When only a few people came, he could use surveillance cameras to manage the situation. But once the crowd grew larger, it became impossible to stop them. The cost of growing peanuts is over 3,000 yuan per acre, and he managed more than 165 acres of farmland. He said he would have to bear all the losses himself and no longer plans to continue planting peanuts. It's understood that normally, after farmers finish harvesting, nearby villagers wait by the fields and collect what's left behind. However, some people enter the fields without the landowner's permission, and begin collecting peanuts before the harvest is complete. In rural China, incidents of farmers' crops being taken have increasingly become common. Farmers are unable to do much about it. Friends, how should this situation be handled? A farmer said that her sweet potatoes were taken by more than 100 people. Some of the sweet potatoes had already been packed into boxes, but entire boxes were carried away. After the incident happened, she immediately called the police, but the police were unable to resolve the situation. The sweet potatoes in my field were stolen before they were even harvested. They took them box by box, carrying them away right in front of me. When I tried to stop them, they cursed at me, saying they were old and had heart problems. I was completely helpless. They were openly stealing in broad daylight. They took so many of my sweet potatoes. Give them back to me! One user commented, this shows that many rural families are still relying on these leftover scraps to get by. Another said, is this the so-called moderately prosperous society? During the farming off-season, people go to other people's fields to pick peanuts. Others commented, people's livelihoods are so difficult. In this extremely challenging environment, simply staying alive is already not easy. Some users said this is a consequence of China's collective land ownership system. Farmers don't own private farmland, and household farming contracts are usually divided into small plots scattered across different locations, making large-scale mechanized farming difficult. Today, only those who have contracted large amounts of collective land can create concentrated farmlands and use agricultural machinery. This they argue is why many people don't intervene. If the issue were examined more deeply, villagers all have a share of the land and could theoretically claim a portion of the rental income. They say the issue is difficult to investigate further, and authorities do not allow deeper discussion. Independent commentator Du Zheng said that this kind of crop-grabbing behavior has existed for many years, but he argued that it only happened after the Chinese Communist Party came to power. He said one reason was that the government took control of farmers' land, and another was that political campaigns damaged traditional social values and encouraged people to benefit themselves at others' expense. He added that as China's economic crisis deepens, rural areas could be among the first places where social order becomes unstable. Some users also said that the increasing number of farmers taking crops from other people's fields is related to financial hardships. In recent years, China's economy has remained weak, unemployment has risen, and many people are burdened with mortgages and other financial pressures. Compared with urban residents, rural farmers face even greater challenges. Many migrant workers who leave their hometowns to find jobs struggle to secure stable employment. They have to travel across the country looking for temp jobs, yet after a year, they may still fail to earn enough money. This man, who is in his 60s, told a content creator that he's a veteran construction worker with decades of experience, but he's been unable to find work. This is what life looks like for farmers picking up potatoes in Zhangjiakou in September 2026. This is how difficult life can be for farmers. At night, they sleep in shared dormitories. Many people ask why men and women sleep in the same room, and why the conditions are so poor with such bad hygiene. That's because ordinary people have not been pushed to that point. When survival itself becomes a problem, the strength people can show can be incredible. These mothers on Sichuan, for example, carry their children on their backs while collecting potatoes. A bag of potatoes they pick is worth about a little more than 1 yuan. On average, they can fill one bag every 2 minutes. Many people might only pick for half a day before suffering from back pain and being unable to get up for the rest of the day, but these mothers carry their children and work almost like machines. In September 2026, a user posted a video saying, Two people are making 1,500 red bricks. Making money is so difficult. Another video included the caption, If it weren't for our wives, children, and elderly parents, who would choose to live like this? Finding work outside the village is difficult, and the situation in rural areas is even more heartbreaking. Since the 1990s, large numbers of rural workers have moved to cities. Over the past 30 years, many remote rural areas in China have become increasingly hollowed In some places, housing conditions are still similar to those of the 1980s, 1990s, or even the 50s and 60s. Many elderly people in rural areas have little to no social security. When they become sick, they can't afford medical care and are left in desperate situations. These realities are rarely seen in official news reports and are sometimes revealed by charity workers or independent groups. An elderly woman comes out to sell goods before sunrise. How old are you? You're still working this hard at such an old age. What else can I do? I need money to buy medicine. You need money for medicine? I need five yuan a day to buy medicine. A content creator said, If you hadn't seen it with your own eyes, you would never believe that such a poor place still exists. This is Songbai Village in Nangxiang Town, Guangxi. Local residents are still living very difficult lives. They live in mud brick and tile houses, have very limited sources of income, and mainly rely on farming small plots of land and raising livestock. Their living conditions are extremely poor. The creator filmed many old and dilapidated houses in the village. Social media platforms also contain many videos showing similar situations. Some villages in northern China have become nearly empty. A rural bakery in Zhoukou, Henan Province recently gained attention for its extremely low prices. A cupcake costs only one yuan, while a small four-inch cake sells for only five yuan, leaving many users shocked by the prices. This cake costs five yuan each. The bakery owner, a man surnamed Li, runs a shop from his home in rural Zhoukou. Although the location is relatively remote, he does not have to pay rent. He said rural residents have limited spending power, and if prices are set too high, no one would buy the products. That's why he keeps his cake prices very low. Recently, residents in several areas have told non-state media that consumer spending power has dropped significantly this year. Some people even said they can no longer afford to buy meat. A content creator familiar with rural life described the hardships faced by rural residents. Do you know what life has become like for elderly people in rural areas? If you're not from the countryside, you probably can't imagine it. Today, many elderly people in rural areas die at home, and their children don't even know for several days. How tragic is that? Some people may ask, where are their children? Look at China today. How many young people are still there? Most of them are elderly. People born in the 80s and 90s have all gone elsewhere to work. They have no choice either. Corn sells for just one or two yuan per pound. If they cling to that small piece of land, they may only earn 3,000 to 4,000 yuan a year. What can they do with that? They can't even afford medical treatment if they get sick. The whole family could end up struggling just to survive. The situation is slightly better in southern China, but especially in the north, apart from those small plots of land, there's almost nothing left. The people going to cities for work are mostly older migrant workers with no other options. They rely on physical labor to earn money and survive. Those with slightly more ability may earn some money and take out loans to buy a home, but they have to make mortgage payments every month. With their meager salary of only 4,000 to 5,000 yuan a month, after paying the mortgage, they have almost nothing left. For those without the ability to buy a home, they rent. They don't even dare to rent a larger place, usually only a room of around 100 square feet. Think about it. In such a tiny space, how can they bring their parents to live with them and take care of them? Many people may not believe what I'm saying. If you don't believe it, go to the countryside and see for yourself. These are real struggles that people are facing. If you had another life, would you still choose to be a farmer? In my next life, I don't want to be a farmer anymore. Being a farmer is too hard. Recently, Chinese authorities announced that the contribution limits for farmers' pensions would be significantly increased. In Liaoning and Guizhou, the maximum annual contribution levels were raised from 3,000 yuan previously to 5,000 yuan and 6,000 yuan respectively. Yunnan raised the maximum contribution level even further, to 10,000 yuan per year. It became the first province in China where the upper limit exceeded 10,000 yuan. Official explanations in several regions emphasize the idea that the more you contribute, the more you receive. They say that after paying for 15 years, monthly payments could exceed 1,000 yuan. However, this claim has triggered strong reactions among many rural residents. The reality is that while authorities continue raising the maximum contribution levels, with the highest tiers becoming a challenge for many ordinary farmers, the basic pension amount has remained only slightly above 100 yuan a month even after multiple increases. At the CCP's annual two sessions meeting in March this year, authorities announced that farmers' monthly pensions would increase by 20 yuan, rising from 143 yuan to 163 yuan. Many people consider this amount far from enough given today's cost of living. Data shows that the average pension received by Chinese farmers is more than 10 times lower than that of retired enterprise employees. Compared with retired government and public institution employees, the gap reaches an estimated 30 to 50 times. Meanwhile, senior Chinese officials and elites reportedly receive far more extensive benefits after retirement. The huge gap in pension levels has led many farmers to say, One farmer said helplessly, One content creator said that most farmers spend their entire lives farming, yet their annual income is only a few thousand yuan. They can't afford to set aside 10,000 yuan every year for pension contributions. No matter how high the contribution limit rises, it's meaningless if farmers can't afford to pay. The creator said the higher tiers are designed for wealthier rural residents and have little to do with ordinary farmers. Ironically, in 2021, Chinese leader Xi Jinping announced that China had successfully eliminated poverty and had fully built a moderately prosperous society. However, critics and some members of the public argued that the claim did not match the reality they saw. At the Chinese National People's Congress meeting in 2020, then-Premier Li Keqiang revealed that 600 million people in China had an average monthly income of only 1,000 yuan. The contrast between Xi and Li's statements attracted widespread attention. On September 16, 2026, an overseas user posted a video asking what does the moderately prosperous life of Chinese people look like during the Xi Jinping era? Can people believe the rural scenes shown in the video? In large rural areas of Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, and other provinces, many people are still living in such conditions. Another user posted a video saying that the poorest people in the world had been found not in Africa or Latin America, and not in India, Myanmar, or Laos, but in China. The video claimed that these areas were not only poor in terms of income, but also had poor living conditions. It said that the claim of building a moderately prosperous society was false. The user wrote that watching such videos was heartbreaking, and although they wanted to celebrate China's new countryside, the reality was too harsh. One user said that in China, being a farmer is an identity rather than a profession. Farmers do the most physically demanding work, but receive the lowest incomes. They have very limited social welfare protections, and also face various forms of discrimination. It's worth noting that in rural China, there are incidents of people taking others' agricultural products due to poverty and personal greed. On the other hand, there have also been frequent cases where people defend their own rights and confront government authorities. These events reflect people's basic desire to protect their interests. In recent years, Chinese authorities have aggressively promoted cremation, triggering backlash in areas with deep-rooted burial traditions. In some places, government personnel have entered villages to block coffins, and even carried out nighttime raids to seize bodies for cremation. These actions have sparked resistance from villagers. In November 2025, a coffin protection incident broke out in Yunnan province, where thousands of villagers confronted a government body seizure team. By September 2026, tensions between locals and authorities in Zhenxiong County had further intensified. Recently, authorities in 14 townships in Zhenxiong County, Yunnan, forcibly implemented cremation policies. On September 12, thousands of villagers escorted the coffin of a deceased 16-year-old boy up a mountain, successfully carrying out a traditional burial ceremony. On the evening of September 14, more than 10,000 people gathered in Jianshan Township and protected the coffins of two elderly people. According to participants, authorities deployed hundreds of police officers but did not take further action. Villagers said that to prevent local authorities from secretly digging up graves and taking bodies away for cremation, many people stayed behind to guard the burial sites. Some supporters said traditional burials have long been practiced locally, and they believe forced cremation is aimed at extracting money from ordinary people. The forced cremation policy also triggered protests in several other provinces, including Guizhou, Jiangxi, and Hubei. On November 22, 2025, Xifeng County in Guiyang, Guizhou Province, saw strong resistance from the local Miao ethnic residents and farmers over mandatory cremation policies. During the protests, villagers shouted at officials, if the Communist Party wants to dig up ancestral graves, then dig up Xi Jinping's family first. According to data reported by the China Dissident Monitor, a project under Freedom House, there were over 5,000 incidents of public resistance across China last year, a 44% increase compared to the total number recorded in 2024. The incidents were often related to issues such as land seizures, funeral reforms, and the demolition of temples. Examples included anti-land acquisition protests in Tongxing Village, Hunan Province, opposition to forced cremation in Guizhou, and resistance to temple demolitions in Lingyao County, Hainan Province. In the second quarter of 2026, a total of 846 protests were recorded. Among all groups involved in these actions, rural villagers accounted for 18%, making them the third largest protest group after homeowners and workers. This suggests that even under strict government control, conflicts in rural areas remain one of the major sources of social tension. Human rights lawyer Wu Xiaoping said that officials at all levels of the CCP have repeatedly used various methods to seize farmers' resources. He said that many migrant workers spent the last 20 years working in cities, but after returning to the countryside, they discovered that their original land rights no longer existed. These returning farmers have a stronger awareness of legal rights. When they face official violations and feel exploited, dissatisfaction grows. Chairman of the International Alliance of the China Democratic Party, Jie Lijian, said that ordinary people at the bottom of society have endured long-term pressure and humiliation, and that more collective protests could emerge in the future. He said that when people cannot even afford food, they may be pushed towards taking action. Chinese affairs expert Yang Bo said that due to years of political messaging by Chinese authorities, many people have become less united. In the past, because of prolonged rural depopulation, villagers were mostly made up of elderly and children, making it difficult to challenge local authorities. However, in recent years, as the urban economy has weakened, many workers have returned home and stopped going to cities for work. He said that in some remote areas, stronger local traditions of resistance have made authorities concerned. The Financial Times reported that a manager at a state-owned labor agency in Hunan said that since 2023, the number of job advertisements posted by the company has continued to decline, while the number of job seekers has increased steadily. Today, almost every village has some migrant workers who have remained at home without finding work. Every year, China experiences a wave of migrant workers returning home for the new year. However, in late 2025, with three months still remaining before the holiday, many migrant workers got home early. At the time, Chinese authorities issued notices warning against large-scale migrant worker returns and prolated stays in hometowns. This triggered questions and criticism from the public. A major Weibo influencer wrote that many rural areas in China still rely on income earned by young people working away from home. In recent years, however, as the real estate sector has declined, large numbers of migrant workers have lost their jobs and returned to their hometowns. They may be able to manage for the first year or two, but if employment problems remain unresolved, what consequences could follow? And if many unemployed young people in a village spend their days idle, what might happen? Yang Bo said that from a social stability perspective, Chinese authorities may actually prefer rural depopulation. He argued that authorities are particularly concerned about large numbers of young migrant workers staying home because without income, they would become more likely to challenge the government. However, he said economic conditions have changed, rural depopulation is beginning to reverse, and migrant workers are returning to the countryside, leaving authorities unable to prevent the trend.