TODAY.AZ / Society

Chinese steel workers beat private firm boss to death

27 July 2009 [10:34] - TODAY.AZ
Thousands of angry Chinese steel workers clashed with police and beat to death an executive of the firm trying to take over their company, a Hong Kong-based human rights organisation has said.
Rioters killed Chen Guojun, the general manager of Jianlong Steel Holding Company, after learning that the privatised firm was to buy a majority stake in state-owned Tonghua Iron and Steel Group. The deal now appears to be scrapped, guardian.co.uk reported.

The violence in Tonghua city, Jilin province, north-eastern China, on Friday is believed to be the country's biggest civil disturbance since last summer. It comes weeks after inter-ethnic conflict between Han Chinese and the Muslim Uighur minority in China's north-west region of Xinjiang left 197 people dead and 1,700 injured.

The Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said 30,000 people were involved in the latest incident, although some internet postings put the figure at closer to 10,000.

China is the world's largest consumer and producer of steel, but its industry is regarded as inefficient.

The workers are thought to have been fearful of further large-scale redundancies at a company that reportedly axed many jobs only a few years ago. Reports suggest Tonghua has between 20,000 and 50,000 employees.
 
URL: http://www.today.az/news/society/54139.html

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