This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

A new report from the Wall Street Journal has detailed how local governments in China are withholding wages from government-paid employees and pensioners in a desperate bid to save cash.

According to the report, dozens of medical staff in the city of Shanwei, located in southeast China, protested by occupying a hall within a public hospital in October over unpaid wages and bonuses. Retired city employees of Yichun, in the northeast of China, also gathered to protest pensions that had not been paid out for months.

The growing debt of local governments is stretching into the trillions, which the WSJ notes is largely "borrowed off the books," as China's shadow banking, which consists of loans outside of traditional banking, continues to swell.

Currently, China's debt officially sits at just under $10 trillion. When factoring in shadow banking, the true debt reaches over $30 trillion.

The report further notes social media has been putting on a spotlight on months-long wage arrears, and it suggests cities are "strapped for cash" and drowning in debt, while recent cash injections via stimulus to local governments by the Chinese Communist Party, have only just "scratched the surface."

Authorities are now cutting medical benefits and attempting to find unpaid taxes to bolster their budgets, but the ongoing impact will eventually affect China's private business sector, employers of civil servants, contractors, and could lead to China's economic growth grinding to a halt.

Employees of Shanghai-based Guoli True Leather Company protested this week after not receiving wages for months.

However, wage issues are not a new issue in China. In 2023, employees of state-owned companies said they hadn't been paid for over 45 months, while pensioners said their promised benefits and medical insurance payments had been reduced.