SOE denies hiring thugs to fight workers at tunnel site

The China Railway Sixth Bureau Group, a State-owned enterprise (SOE), denied Saturday that it hired more than 100 thugs to beat up 40 workers who were occupying a railway tunnel construction site in Anhui Province, claiming they were owed two months' back wages.

The SOE admitted in a statement that 80 of its workers got into a fight on August 27 with the protesting workers who were employed by Xintong Company.

The SOE said its personnel had been blocked from working on the Bijia Mountain tunnel project since last March, after Xintong backed out of its contract to build more than 16 kilometers of tunnels.

Xintong was subcontracted by the SOE to build 11 tunnels on a new railway linking Hefei, Anhui Province to Fuzhou, Fujian Province. The contract was worth 846 million yuan ($133.38 million).

The China Railway Sixth Bureau Group claims it paid 418 million yuan to Xintong after it backed out of the project in February after completing just 7 kilometers of tunnels.

Lin Yong, 42, a shareholder of Xintong, told the Global Times that over 100 men wearing construction helmets broke into the construction site at 5 am on August 27 while he and his workers were sleeping.

"They nearly stripped us naked and beat us with rods and clubs," said Lin. "The man beside me was stabbed in the back with a knife."

Lin said the construction workers recognized some of the men as local gangsters.

"We were on our knees begging them to stop, fearing the stabbed man might bleed to death. One of them said the Sixth Bureau Group would pay if they beat us to death."

Police arrived an hour later after Lin called them.

Lin said he suffered a broken leg and a gash on the head that required 17 stitches.

The incident was first reported on tianya.cn, a popular online forum, and quickly made headlines on other leading news portals.

Lin insisted that the SOE, not Xintong, owed his workers two month's salary.

The Sixth Bureau Group said Xintong's claims are unreasonable and encouraging its workers to occupy the construction site was unacceptable.

The Sixth Bureau Group said it will cooperate with the police investigation.