BEIJING: Chinese authorities said they detained 13 people over the collapse of scaffolding at a power plant construction site that killed 74 workers in one of China’s most serious industrial accidents in years.
Most of the dead had been working on the interior concrete wall of a massive circular cooling tower 70 meters (230 feet) up when the scaffolding collapsed Thursday morning.
Although authorities did not disclose details about the 13 detentions, the focus of the investigation has turned to the power plant’s operator, Jiangxi Ganneng, and a major engineering firm, Hebei Yineng, which has taken on multiple high-profile power plant projects and has a history of workplace fatalities.
Yineng has won contracts to build plants in more than a dozen provinces and in Turkey and Malaysia, according to previous interviews given by executives. In 2012, seven Yineng builders in a cooling tower in Yunnan province tumbled to their deaths after scaffolding collapsed. Three years before that, two workers died after a vehicle accidentally backed into a scaffolding support beam at a Yineng-built cooling tower in Guangdong province.
Several of the company’s publicly listed telephone lines and a mobile phone number for the company’s legal representative rang unanswered on Friday. The company’s websites could not be opened.
State media reports said the accident occurred during a change of work shifts, possibly accounting for the high death toll. Workers had also been toiling around-the-clock in three shifts to make progress on the project ahead of the arrival of bitter winter weather, according to local media interviews with surviving employees.
The 1,000-megawatt coal-fired plant had been designated a priority project by the province, likely adding to the pressure on workers.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged local governments to hold those responsible accountable and an investigation was underway.
China has suffered several major work-safety accidents in recent years blamed on weak regulatory oversight, systemic corruption and pressure to boost production amid a slowing economy.
13 detained in China over deadly construction collapse
13 detained in China over deadly construction collapse
Philippines builds defense partnerships amid growing China aggression
- Island country forged new pacts with Japan, the UAE, Canada, Germany in past year
- Manila sees China’s maritime expansion as ‘quintessential security threat,’ expert says
MANILA: The Philippines and Japan have signed a new defense pact, adding to a growing list of security cooperation Manila has been forging with partner countries as it faces a growing Chinese presence in the disputed South China Sea.
Philippine-Japan security ties have strengthened in recent years over shared concerns in the region, with the two countries signing a landmark military pact in 2024, allowing the deployment of their forces on each other’s soil for joint military drills. It was Japan’s first such pact in Asia.
The new defense agreement — signed by Philippine Foreign Secretary Theresa Lazaro and Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi in Manila on Thursday — is a follow-up to their 2024 pact, and would allow tax-free, reciprocal provision of ammunition, fuel, food and other necessities when their forces conduct joint training and disaster relief operations.
The security partnership is aimed at boosting deterrence against China, experts say.
“The latest defense pact with Japan is not only significant but also existential (as) a strong deterrence to China’s growing military size and ambition in the string of islands of the first island chain that includes Japan and the Philippines,” Chester Cabalza, founding president of the International Development and Security Cooperation think tank, told Arab News.
The Philippines, China and several other countries have overlapping claims in the disputed South China Sea, a strategic waterway through which billions of dollars worth of goods pass each year.
Beijing has maintained its expansive claims of the area, despite a 2016 international tribunal ruling that China’s historical assertion to it had no basis.
Japan has a longstanding territorial dispute with China over islands in the East China Sea, while Chinese and Philippine coast guard and navy ships have been involved in a series of tense incidents in the South China Sea in recent years.
“The imminent threat to maintain a status quo of peaceful co-existence in the region brings a shared responsibility for Manila and Tokyo to elevate strategic partnership to achieve this strategic equilibrium,” he said.
Motegi said he and Lazaro “concurred on continuing to oppose unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion in the East and South China seas,” in a clear rebuke of Beijing’s increasing assertiveness, without naming China.
The Philippines sees China’s maritime expansion as “the quintessential security threat,” said international studies expert Prof. Renato De Castro.
“So, of course, we rely on our efforts to build up our armed forces in terms of the comprehensive archipelagic defense operation,” he told Arab News.
The Philippines has a mutual defense treaty with the US, which the allies signed in 1951. While both governments have continued to deepen defense cooperation in recent years, Manila has also been building security partnerships with other countries.
The Philippines has signed two defense deals this month alone, including a Memorandum of Understanding on Defense Cooperation with the UAE, its first such deal with a Gulf country.
Last year, Manila signed military pacts with New Zealand and Canada, which sets the legal framework to allow military engagements, including joint drills, in each other’s territory. Both agreements still need to be ratified by the Philippine Senate to take effect.
The Philippines also signed a defense cooperation arrangement with Germany in May, aimed at boosting joint activities.
