No, China hasn't made it illegal to fire humans and replace them with AI—but yes it's made it much more expensive for companies to do so

China’s State Council has published a state media report through its Information Office concerning a recent legal case about a worker whose role was (at least partially) replaced by AI. The worker, identified by their surname Zhou, was hired for a tech role in quality assurance, before their employer began using AI to cover some of their responsibilities and subsequently offered Zhou a demotion and a salary decrease.

Zhou rejected the offer, which would have seen them take a 40% pay cut, and the firm instead ended their contract, citing the disruption being caused by AI and the company's reduced staffing needs as a result. Zhou challenged this decision in Hangzhou Yuhang District People’s Court, which found in their favour, before the Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court upheld the decision in the face of the company's appeal.

This decision has previously been reported and shared online as China making it illegal to replace workers with AI bots, though this is not quite the case. The dispute here concerned whether Zhou was laid off in the right way and the amount of compensation t...