Former Huawei employee speaks out on Shenzhen’s ‘996’ culture as Chinese city enforces paid leave

For five years, former Huawei employee Zeng Meng embraced China’s infamous “996” culture of working from 9:00am to 9:00pm, six days a week.

Mr Zeng, a power engineer, was employed by the Chinese telecoms giant as a product manager in Shenzhen in 2012, after working for several other major technology companies in the south-eastern city widely regarded as China’s Silicon Valley.

The job quickly “took over” his personal life — he had no time for his family,…