Tonghua

Over the weekend, about 300,000 residents were trapped and left without tap water in their homes in the northeastern province of Jilin after torrential rains drenched the industrial city of Tonghua and damaged four major water pipelines, Xinhua reported.

Dramatic China Flood Rescue (VIDEO) 2010

In an editorial, the official government Xinhua News Agency faulted local-government officials, asking: "Wasn't the Tonghua incident really a matter of failing to consider the interests of workers during the restructuring process?"

Murder Bares Worker Anger Over China Industrial Reform 2009

Incomes for some workers at Tonghua fell back to their 2005 levels -- a decline for which workers say they blamed Jianlong.

Murder Bares Worker Anger Over China Industrial Reform 2009

Tonghua sits in a region known as China's "rust belt," which went through a round of unrest a decade ago when efforts to retool the state-owned industrial sector left tens of millions of workers without jobs.

Murder Bares Worker Anger Over China Industrial Reform 2009

Rumors Circulate Rumors began flying that Jianlong planned to build a new steel plant in another city and replace existing Tonghua workers with recruits from there; that Mr. Chen planned to slash thousands of jobs and shrink pensions; that he was earning three million yuan, about $438,000, or more a year.

Murder Bares Worker Anger Over China Industrial Reform 2009

A committee of Communist Party, government and company officials investigating the incident has been moving from hotel to hotel in Tonghua in order to hold meetings in secret, says Zhou Wei, a party propaganda official in Tonghua.

Murder Bares Worker Anger Over China Industrial Reform 2009

Associated Press After learning that Mr. Chen's privately owned employer planned to take control of government-controlled Tonghua Iron & Steel, thousands of workers who were worried about losing their jobs staged a protest that shut down production at their factory in a soot-covered district of Tonghua in northeastern China.

Manager Murdered 2009

Before the Tonghua riot, restructurings "were concerned only with benefits of local governments and companies," he says.

Murder Bares Worker Anger Over China Industrial Reform 2009

Luo Changping/Caijing Magazine Rumors began flying that Jianlong planned to build a new steel plant in another city and replace existing Tonghua workers with recruits from there; that Mr. Chen (left) planned to slash thousands of jobs and shrink pensions; that he was earning three million yuan, about $438,000, or more a year.

Manager Murdered 2009

Even worse, he says, there were rumors that Jianlong planned to lay off all workers who had been with Tonghua for more than 25 years, replacing them with outsiders.

Murder Bares Worker Anger Over China Industrial Reform 2009