Amid a growing debt crisis, government employees in at least five Chinese provinces have reported sudden, substantial pay cuts, affecting their livelihoods. In December, government employees from five provinces—Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Fujian, and Shanghai—have disclosed their salary reduction notices on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter. The reported pay cuts were around 20 to 30 percent. Some cuts were already in effect while others were about to happen. The Epoch Times contacted individuals in the five provinces and verified those claims. Many government employees in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong, and Fujian have had their salary cut, while pay cuts in Shanghai have yet to take effect. A female civil servant in Zhejiang Province posted a complaint on Weibo, stating that her employer, the Hangzhou Finance Bureau, announced that it would cut its employee salaries without revealing specific reasons. “[The sudden pay cut] has severely affected our daily lives and has brought great …