This post is misinfo
China hasn't passed a law specifically stating you can't replace employees with AI yet
From the cited article https://www.npr.org/2026/05/01/nx-s1-5807131/tech-worker-china-ai
> The worker, identified by the court only by his surname Zhou, was employed at a tech firm in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, as a quality assurance supervisor. The tech firm was not named by the court. Zhou primarily worked with AI large language models and verified the accuracy of answers they generated for users.
> Zhou earned an annual salary of 300,000 yuan ($43,900) before AI took over his job. The company reassigned him, but to a lower-level position with a 40% pay cut.
> He refused and the company ended Zhou's contract citing the disruptive impact of AI on the role and reduced staffing needs.
> Zhou filed an arbitration claim demanding higher compensation for wrongful termination and won. The company disagreed and filed a lawsuit in 2025. It lost at a district-level court. Now it lost again in the appeal.
> Hangzhou court also ruled that it was not reasonable that the alternative position the company offered Zhou came with a substantial salary cut.
There could've been a lot more reasons for this ruling beyond just "don't replace people with AI" such as the fact that the specific position is for checking AI, putting an AI in charge of another AI doesn't make sense
> A Zhejiang lawyer Wang Xuyang, who is not connected to the Hangzhou case, told state-run news agency Xinhua that AI adoption doesn't automatically justify a company terminating a labor contract to cut costs.
They're not connected to the case, their opinion doesn't reflect what the court and government thinks