The former Party boss of Shizong county in the south western province of Yunnan is being investigated for alleged corruption following the death of 43 miners in a massive gas explosion on 10 November 2011, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The detention of two Indians by Chinese businessmen has shed light on the tough, uncompromising and often lawless business environment in which foreign enterprises, lured by lucrative profits, operate in some southern Chinese trading towns.

A four day strike at a Korean-owned handbag factory in Guangzhou has gone completely unreported in the official Chinese media this week as authorities attempt to prevent a repeat of last summer’s wave of strikes in factories in Guangdong and across China.

China Labour Bulletin is quoted in the following article. Copyright remains with the original publisher.

CAROLYNNE WHEELER
14 June 2011

China’s inflation rate is running at its highest level in almost three years, pushing the government to redouble efforts to contain rising prices while facing spreading riots among disgruntled factory workers in the country’s manufacturing hub.

Chinese authorities struggled to restore order Monday after migrant workers, angry over the manhandling of a pregnant vendor, overturned police cars, smashed windows and set fires near the southern manufacturing hub of Guangzhou.

Rioters burned police and fire vehicles in a third day of unrest in southern China's manufacturing heartlands, witnesses have reported.

Police in the southern city of Chaozhou have detained nine protestors after a demonstration by more than 200 migrant workers escalated into violence on 6 June, with several cars being smashed and dozens of people injured.

Police in Chengdu have sealed off the hi-tech industrial park in Chengdu that was rocked by an explosion at the Hongfujin Precision Electronics plant, owned by Foxconn, on 20 May.

Two separate explosions at coal mines in Yunnan and Hunan on 17 May killed 15 miners, according to Chinese media reports. The first explosion, which killed at least eight miners, occurred on Tuesday morning at the Golden Bamboo Mountain mine in Hunan. There were reportedly 14 miners underground at the time. Less than 12 hours later, a gas and coal dust explosion at the Nanfeng mine in Yunnan killed seven miners

Over the last ten years, hundreds of employees at an Inner Mongolian state farm have lost their land and livelihood as managers sold off pasture for profit. Workers who protested were harassed and even detained by local officials and later forced into hiding.