The tragic collapse of a skyscraper in Bangkok [which was the only building that collapsed during the recent earthquake in Thailand], behind the same Chinese contractors associated with the works on Novi Sad railway station, has opened new questions about the security of Chinese projects around the world. While CNN and the Telegraph are investigating the responsibility of Chinese companies in detail, Serbia has reason to follow the developments related to this case with special attention.
While the safety of the Novi Sad railway station and the responsibility of the Chinese contractors from the CRIC-CCCC consortium, led by the China Railway International Company, are still being investigated in Serbia, the new tragedy has once again raised an avalanche of questions about the safety and reliability of projects implemented by Chinese construction companies around the world. In question is the collapse of a skyscraper in Bangkok, the construction of which, according to international media, was entrusted to the company China Railway Number 10 Engineering Group - a related entity of the state corporation that also operates in Serbia.
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The project worth more than two billion Thai baht (about 45 million pounds), built for three years, was led by a company whose actors are known to the public in Serbia - the Italian-Thai corporation Italian-Thai Development Plc and the company China Railway Number 10 (Thailand) Ltd. The latter is the local branch of the Chinese giant China Railway Number 10 Engineering Group, with a share of 49 percent, which is the maximum share of foreign companies in Thai companies, according to the Telegraph, referring to local source The Nation.
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The investigation by the Thai Ministry of Industry is focused on the possible reasons for this disaster, among which are issues of the quality of the steel used, a poor construction project, as well as the possible inadequacy of the specific construction method - the so-called “flat slab” slabs, i.e. flat slabs that lie directly on the pillars, without classic supporting beams. In addition, experts point out the problem of the ground on which Bangkok rests: the soft and unstable ground could significantly increase the effects of the earthquake.
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What further strengthened the suspicion of omissions in the construction process was the deletion of all posts by China Railway Number 10 Group on Chinese social networks related to this project.
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The lack of responses to media inquiries also points to possible attempts to cover up responsibility, which is of particular concern in partner countries around the world, including Serbia, where Chinese contractors have already faced safety issues in the tragic collapse of the canopy at the Novi Sad railway station.
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This won’t be the last horrible catastrophes they’re involved in that we’ll hear about. Frankly, a chinese contractor is already a really bad sign for corruption and the best thing you can do is to avoid anything they’re involved in.
I think more interesting than the contractor itself in both cases is the authority who gave the permits but also then who oversaw the implementation. I would expect skyscrapers and train station buildings to be under more scrutiny than your go to three story apartment or office building.
That‘s how these contracts always work. You give up a lot of, if not all control over a project to pay Chinese workers with money you have to lend from China. That can only work with corruption and of course they‘re making shortcuts at every single turn. By the time it collapsed, the contractor already moved onto the next victim.
Bingo. Here in my area of CA, all project go through plan check, and larger commercial projects that will be utilized by the public are given even more attention. Engineers are not immune from doing stupid shit and running bad calculations, and ultimately it falls on the Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) or whatever their local variant is that approved it.
Yes, this is why autocracies have already and are most likely to receive Chinese investments, e.g., within the country’s “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI) of which Novi Sad’s canopy was part of.
China’s rise has created an attractive alternative for autocratic regimes, especially since it does not impose the same kinds of conditions that often require loosening state controls on the corporate sector and reducing clientelism. Between 2014 and 2019, I find that 77% of total BRI spending on construction projects went to autocracies, and primarily to those with semi-competitive elections.
With the way enshittification has been driving down the quality of all of the goods we buy for years now, we would be naive to think that the same compromises aren’t being made with building materials. From now on, I won’t be going into any skyscrapers that weren’t built at least 5 years ago lol
Always reminds me of the string of assassins that was arrested in China
A guy wanted to kill his business partner, because China, but didn’t have the guts to do it himself, so he paid a guy to do it for him
This guy didn’t wanted to do it so he kept a good part of the money and used the test to pay another guy todo it instead
Rinse and repeat this four more times and the last one was arrested for I don’t remember what but with him the entire chain exploded upwards and everyone was arrested
I have nothing against individual Chinese but as soon as government or larger companies are involved, you just know there is shit because there is always shit
BBC story on how that all went down.
He has the lowest bid so it’s fine.
This would be a good time for China to throw some company exec in jail.
