That’s the sound of bankers and industrialists sucking all the jobs from the market, using smart robots and automation and keeping all the benefits of increased productivity for themselves.

As China Daily is reporting, local authorities in Guangdong are introducing its “robot assembling line” strategy. To start, private company Everwin Precisions Technology Ltd is expecting to deploy 1,000 robots by the end of the first phase of the zero-labor project. According to its board chairman, Chen Qixing, the company will reduce its workforce by 90%. So instead of employing its current 2,000 workers, the company will require just 200 employees to operate software systems and administration. Owing to a severe labor shortage and mounting labor costs, similar projects may be unveiled elsewhere around the Pearl River Delta.

China’s shrinking workforce may be a natural consequence of demographic trends, but it’s also likely the result of economic globalization. As the middle class emerges in China, so too do salary expectations and the desire for jobs outside the manufacturing sector. What’s more, the demand cannot be met through the influx of migrant workers. To stave off catastrophic production short-falls, China’s economists are advocating for technology upgrades and the use of smart robots.

So now that Chinese workers have saved a few yuan together to breathe some fresh air and demand better wages, the greedy industrialists in China, like all other greedy industrialists want to cut them out of the equation. And since immigration is not an option in China (they can’t claim they don’t have enough people for the jobs), they will do the next best thing – automate.