China View: China's Vocational Students Paying the Price for Cheap Labor?
On December 19th, 2025, a carbon monoxide poisoning incident occurred at the Afanti Restaurant in Xijiang, China, resulting in the deaths of two high school students and one adult, while four other people were injured. The incident was a normal and tragic accident, while this tragedy reveals a deeper structural problem within China's vocational education. The Kashgar Prefecture Administrative Office in Xinjiang published the "Major Carbon Monoxide Poisoning and Asphyxiation Incident at the Employee Dormitory of the Afanti Restaurant Report” on June 8, 2026. The main cause of this tragedy is that the restaurant's workers lack the restaurant safety standards, fire safety, and the vocational high school authorities lack inspections of the work environment at partner internship units, leading to student deaths.
An increasing number of Chinese students, showing a significant percentage, are opting for vocational high schools for their education. School officials must prioritize student safety during internships. Similar to other nations, China has an education system catering to students with a preference for technical skills over academics, as evidenced by the significant percentage of students opting for vocational high schools. According to Chinese government data, about 70% of Chinese students who finish junior high school go on to academic high school, while about 30% go to vocational high schools. In higher education, approximately 54% of students are in regular academic programs, and 46% of students are in vocational high school. In recent years, China has gradually shifted from a structure where general education far outnumbers vocational high schools to a nearly 1:1 ratio between academic pathways and vocational education pathways, with the number of new students in vocational education even slightly surpassing that of regular undergraduate programs.
On May 21, the Chinese Human Rights Defender published a report that revealed the problem of overtime working hours and the lack of working safety that Chinese students received from schools and employers. During the mandatory internship that students must finish, CHRD researched the government administrative penalty records, online databases, court documents, and Chinese media reports, and found that across 11 provinces from 2019 to 2025, some vocational school students work 10 to 12 hours per week, including night shifts, working in labor unrelated to their field of study. Some internship positions expose students to severe personal safety risks, which have resulted in the deaths of three students during their internships. Tragically, two students committed suicide. Before the tragedies occurred, these students had reported the pressure and difficulties they faced to their teachers and employers. Schools must provide protection for high school students under 18 years of age, ensuring that consistent safety measures are in place.
Back to the tragedy in Xijiang, the accident investigation pointed out that the Afanti Restaurant didn’t effectively fulfill its primary responsibility for production safety, with chaotic and disordered safety management. The restaurant failed to implement a dormitory management system for employees, and the safety training to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning was superficial and lacked effectiveness. In this case, the Afanti Restaurant in Xijiang has a total of 18 employees, including 11 interns. The interns make up 61% of the employees in internship positions.
The CHRD report pointed out that in China, illegal practices of employing child labor, including children as young as 13, still exist in the manufacturing, entertainment, and service industries. We found more than a dozen penalty records issued by government departments between 2019 and 2025, involving six provinces and cities. These records show that child labor violations are common. In July 2024, the government of Dongguan City, Guangdong Province, issued 39 administrative penalty notices to multiple companies, underscoring the serious repercussions of engaging in child labor practices.
The accident investigation report recommends disciplinary action against a total of six leaders and staff members at Xinjiang Province Vocational and Technical School. It is suggested that three department leaders be sent to the Shule County Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision to obey the rules, while three faculty members should be handled internally by the Shule County Vocational and Technical School according to the relevant regulations. However, this incident has already resulted in three deaths, and the school has not assumed any criminal or civil liability.
The children and students' labor issues have been debated in China for a long time; this incident of carbon monoxide poisoning reveals the grey zone of the Vocational School Student Internships Management Regulations issued by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China. It is crucial for legal regulations to protect student safety, and school authorities must rigorously adhere to the accountability mechanism to guarantee a safe environment for students.
