The death of a Pinduoduo worker renews the scrutiny of long hours under the 996 work culture

Photographer: Qilai Shen / Bloomberg

The recent death of a The Pinduoduo Inc. employee renewed criticism of the long hours commonly practiced at China’s tech companies, which are already under scrutiny by regulators for anti-competitive business practices.

The e-commerce company confirmed that an employee collapsed while walking home with her colleagues at 1:30 a.m. Tuesday. The employee, who was born in 1998 and joined Pinduoduo in July 2019, could not be resuscitated and died after nearly six hours of first aid, according to a statement. His death sparked a social media backlash against Pinduoduo and the relentless work schedules expected of his employees, with a hashtag about the incident attracting more than 200 million views on the Twitter-like Sina Weibo service.