This afternoon, while I was browsing the Mala GIS group, a user named @zheer discovered a pop-up demanding unpaid wages in an open-source Cesium examples project. This immediately piqued my interest, so I opened it to explore. The project summarizes common effects in Cesium development with over 200 demos, and also includes over 100 demos developed with ThreeJS. It's lamentable that such a talented developer had to resort to using an open-source project to plead for their wages, which is quite disheartening.

Open-source project address: https://jiawanlong.github.io/

Reproduction Method

Open the above open-source project address and click on the first item "CesiumJs Examples 2025" (source code public).

Several pop-ups will appear successively, one of which contains the wage demand information.

Hongtu Aerospace, Pay My Wages!

The target of this wage protest is Hongtu Aerospace, a company that has become a hot topic on various GIS public accounts in the past year. Previously, many colleagues have provided updates on similar wage disputes, and in the current industry downturn, such incidents have almost become commonplace.

Since 2025, the company has been at the center of attention in the GIS industry. Firstly, its financial performance has significantly declined. In the first three quarters of 2025, the company's revenue was approximately 403 million yuan, a decrease of 70.06% year-on-year; the net profit attributable to shareholders was a loss of about 366 million yuan. The basic earnings per share were a loss of 1.4 yuan. Reference: (https://www.nbd.com.cn/articles/2025-10-30/4123984.html) Overall, the company is facing major operational difficulties — both revenue and profits have dropped sharply, and profitability is severely insufficient.

In November 2025, the company announced that due to suspected violations in participating in the "Portable UAV Series Project Procurement" activity, it was suspended by the Army Logistics Department Procurement and Asset Management Bureau from participating in material engineering service procurement activities across the entire military for a period of three years (from July 6, 2024 to July 6, 2027). (https://finance.sina.com.cn/jjxw/2025-11-05/doc-infwkiit2737607.shtml) For a satellite/remote sensing service company that relies on military procurement orders, this "red card" penalty deals a heavy blow to its main business, negatively impacting production, operations, and performance.

Of course, in August 2025, Hongtu Aerospace announced the signing of a approximately 990 million yuan satellite and ground system procurement contract with an overseas client. Many thought this would revive the company, but the reality is harsh. A few days later, the company issued a statement clarifying that the contract was a "strategic cooperation agreement / procurement contract intention" and that no formal contract had been signed yet. Whether it will be finalized and the performance of the contract are uncertain. (https://cj.sina.com.cn/articles/view/7935425109/1d8fcfa5502001ay96)

Against this backdrop, layoffs have become routine. There are numerous posts on Xiaohongshu and WeChat public accounts about layoffs and wage disputes at this company. It's shocking that the reality is so harsh that employees are forced to plead for their wages in open-source projects.

Summary

Previously, in the article "This Wuhan GIS State-Owned Enterprise Website Exposes the Shame of the GIS Industry", I introduced the case where the official website of Wuhan Huike Zhichuang Technology Co., Ltd., under the Han Urban Construction Group, was hacked, displaying the words "RNM还钱" (a crude demand for money). This time, the developer's approach is more rational and dignified. They did not damage any company facilities but only used their own open-source project to demand wages, which can be considered very reasonable. Although the overall environment is not good, and companies are indeed facing difficulties, I truly hope that those companies, if they have the means, would not delay employees' wages. Whether employees stay or leave, everyone should act with dignity, right? After all, the industry is quite small. If a company's reputation is ruined, or if a former employee happens to move to a higher position, can the company guarantee that they won't retaliate against their former employer?