China’s AI Push Is Turning Coders Into Its First Job Casualties

China’s AI Push Is Turning Coders Into Its First Job Casualties
A question in a Beijing office — could AI replace human coders? — was followed, just two weeks later, by the loss of 160 jobs. The episode captures the brutal trade-off inside China’s race to put artificial intelligence everywhere.

First came the warning. Fei Zhaojun, a 40-year-old programmer, was asked by his boss whether AI could soon do the work of human developers. Two weeks afterward, Fei and roughly 160 colleagues were laid off.

Fei had once doubted that AI could code reliably enough to supplant people. His employer’s view was harsher: close enough could be enough. “Mid-level coders’ job are essentially replaceable in most of the cases,” he said. During his career break, he has begun making short vlog-style videos, though they have not yet become a source of income.

His response is not outright resistance. “Even if it is a disaster that leads to replacing all humans, at this stage, you just have to use it as everyone else is using it,” Fei said. That pragmatism reflects a wider Chinese mood, where workers often see AI as both a threat and a tool they cannot afford to ignore.

The pressure is spreading beyond programming. Translator Du Qinchun has found temporary work training an AI translation model, but says pay in his industry has fallen by more than half from years earlier. Scriptwriter Wang Zhicheng left after his company cut about half of its 13 writers; he now works independently on children’s books, arguing that “Humans are still the decision makers” among AI-generated options.

China’s government is accelerating that disruption through its AI Plus initiative, seeking to embed AI across the economy through 2030. Supporters say automation can help offset an aging, shrinking workforce. Critics warn that, in an already fragile jobs market, the productivity gains may arrive faster than replacement work.

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