Chinese Auto Supplier Xingyu Apologizes for Ultimatum That Pushed Out 107 New Graduates

At an online results briefing on Tuesday, Zhou Xiaoping, chairman and general manager of the Changzhou auto-lamp maker Xingyu, said her company had "deeply reflected and sincerely apologized" over its treatment of 107 new graduate hires, and would implement remedial measures "under the guidance of government departments." The statement, carried by The Paper, was liked close to 7,000 times within hours.

The apology closed the latest chapter of a case that has dominated China's conversation about work. In early August, according to recordings of HR meetings leaked online, the supplier of headlamps to Chinese and foreign carmakers began summoning the entire 2026 cohort of graduate hires and offering them a "two-choose-one": sign a resignation citing "personal reasons" and collect half a month's salary, or be reassigned to the front line — screwing in fasteners, plugging lamp sockets — at assembly-worker pay. Those who hesitated, the recordings suggested, could expect unfavorable word in industry background checks.

To an outsider the scheme looks bizarre; to Chinese readers it was instantly legible. Xingyu had recruited the graduates as engineers and managers, and "being sent to 打螺丝" — literally "screwing in screws" — has become the standard shorthand for a degree's value collapsing into line work. The timing sharpened the insult: the purge came just as Xingyu prepared its second attempt at a Hong Kong listing, and many suspected the payroll was being tidied to flatter the books.

The backlash forced the machinery of response into motion. The dispute had already crossed borders — we covered the graduates' EU complaint and the company's first walk-back last week. Changzhou's labour authorities found the company's communication "crude and blunt"; Xingyu's human-resources director was suspended, and the company published an apology offering compensation. The labour market delivered a verdict of its own — recruitment agencies told Blue Whale News that after the scandal made hiring difficult, Xingyu raised the retention bonus for outsourced hourly workers from 2 to 3 yuan an hour, lifting take-home pay to roughly 8,500 yuan for a 300-hour month.

Readers drew the wider lesson themselves. "Xingyu's problem is not just Xingyu's," one commenter wrote under the apology. "We need more Pang Dong Lais" — a reference to the retailer whose generous treatment of staff has made it China's benchmark for corporate decency. "Companies need a sense of social responsibility, not just profit."

Zhou's briefing tried to split the difference. She thanked the media "for supervising us with the truth" — while noting the company had filed complaints with cyberspace and public-security authorities over what it called false reports from some outlets. For the graduates, the arithmetic on the table has not changed: a line job at about 23 yuan an hour, or a resignation letter. The company says it will compensate those affected and rebuild its employment rules around "institutions and procedures." Its Hong Kong listing, the putative reason for it all, goes on.