A 7.7 magnitude earthquake recorded on Friday near the Burmese city of Mandalay has killed at least 3,145 people, with at least 4,589 injured and hundreds more missing and feared trapped under rubble. Numerous countries—including China, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Russia, Japan, Malaysia, and Singapore—have sent donations of funds, emergency supplies, rescue teams, and more. Chinese state media has prominently trumpeted China’s mobilization of resources to support aid and rescue operations. But the Chinese government is also under intense scrutiny for the deadly collapse of a skyscraper in Bangkok, Thailand following the earthquake: the highrise was under construction by a Chinese state-owned company. Chinese social media censorship of the collapse has added to suspicions of a possible cover-up of poor construction standards and worries about the vulnerability of other Chinese construction projects in the region.

Among 142 skyscrapers in Bangkok, the only one to collapse after the earthquake, whose epicenter was 1,000 kilometers away, was a 30-storey building under construction by China Railway No. 10 Engineering Group, the primary contractor. At least 15 people inside were killed and dozens more are missing. Coverage of the building collapse was censored across Chinese social media on Friday. This included a short article by Phoenix News indicating that the collapsed building was being constructed by a Chinese state-owned contractor. The WeChat account History Rhymes published an article that speculated about what structural flaws might have caused the building to collapse, and stated that even during the magnitude 8.0 Sichuan earthquake in 2008, no skyscrapers collapsed in Chengdu, only 50 kilometers from the epicenter. Netizens also took screenshots of an older WeChat post by the Chinese contractor promoting the building; the post was deleted immediately after the collapse. Ironically, the deleted promotional post mentioned that the building was slated to be the new headquarters of the Thai government’s audit bureau, and that leaders of the bureau had visited the site several times and reportedly praised the safety and quality of the project. Alex Colville from China Media Project described the efforts by the Chinese contractor and authorities to sweep the project under the rug:

Shortly after the collapse, the China Railway No. 10 Engineering Group removed a post from its WeChat account that had celebrated the recent capping of the building, praising the project as the company’s first “super high-rise building overseas,” and “a calling card for CR No. 10’s development in Thailand.” Archived versions of this and other posts were shared by Thais on social media, including one academic who re-posted a deleted promo video to his Facebook account — noting with bitter irony that it boasted of the building’s tensile strength and earthquake resistance.

Trying to access news of the building collapse inside China, Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA) reported that queries on domestic search engines returned only deleted articles from Shanghai-based outlets such as The Paper (澎湃新闻) and Guancha (观察网). In a post to Weibo, former Global Times editor Hu Xijin (胡锡进) confessed that the building “probably had quality issues.” Even this post was rapidly deleted, making clear that the authorities were coming down hard on the story.

Searches on Weibo today for “Bangkok” and “tofu-dreg projects” (豆腐渣工程), a term often used in Chinese to describe shoddy and dangerous construction, return almost entirely results prior to March 18, ten days before the collapse in Bangkok. [Source]

Evidence of poor construction standards and other labor issues have emerged. Mana Nimitmongkol, president of the Anti-Corruption Organisation of Thailand, told Reuters that his organization’s visits to the construction site had “raised concerns about delays, worker shortages and possible corner-cutting.” Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra ordered an investigation into the building collapse, with initial findings expected this week. The disaster recalls a similar incident in Serbia last November, when a subsidiary of China Railway (the parent company of the contractor involved in the Bangkok building collapse) was blamed, along with Serbian officials, for a train-station canopy collapse that killed 15 people and sparked nationwide Serbian protests against corruption. Damien Cave and Muktita Suhartono at The New York Times highlighted other issues with the Chinese company’s construction standards:

Workers in Bangkok told The New York Times that China Railway 10th, which was part of a consortium constructing the building, underpaid contractors who turned to lower quality materials, and used columns narrower than usual.

Thai officials testing twisted metal from the ruins said they found substandard steel bars — made by a Thai factory with Chinese owners that the authorities had shut down in December.

An anti-corruption watchdog also said it had flagged construction irregularities at the 30-story tower before March 28, when fleeing workers watched the high-rise implode.

[…] Adding suspicion, four Chinese nationals who identified themselves as subcontractors were caught on camera the day after the earthquake removing documents from an office behind the rubble. They told the authorities it was for an insurance claim. The police seized the documents; the men were detained, then released. [Source]

In Myanmar, the earthquake has devastated local populations already suffering from years of civil war between the military junta and ethnic armed organizations. Myanmar’s ruling military junta has been very restrictive about what sort of aid can pass through its checkpoints, and on Wednesday its soldiers fired on a Chinese Red Cross convoy trying to deliver food and medicine. Under pressure the next day, the junta announced a 21-day ceasefire to support relief efforts. The Chinese government announced $14 million in assistance for Myanmar, including 1,200 tents, 8,000 blankets and 40,000 first aid kits. Many Western media outlets highlighted the contrast between China’s rapid response and the U.S.’ tepid response to the earthquake. While Chinese media was generally less explicit in pointing out the discrepancy, the Global Times did provide in-depth coverage of “the unbreakable bonds of the China-Myanmar ‘Paukphaw’ friendship.” On Thursday, Poppy Mcpherson and Antoni Slodkowski at Reuters described the domestic media coverage of China’s relief efforts:

China has sent more than 30 rescue teams with over 600 personnel, and the Chinese Red Cross has provided 1.5 million yuan ($205,563.93) in cash help, the [Chinese foreign] ministry told Reuters.

[…] Beijing has used its state media machine to broadcast its relief efforts.

English-language state broadcaster CGTN was one of the few international media outlets with reporters sending on-camera dispatches from Mandalay, the epicentre of the disaster.

State-run news agency Xinhua has also run extensive reports showing China’s relief efforts. [Source]