Why Do Chinese Buildings Keep Collapsing?

A Chinese-made building in Thailand was supposed to show off Chinese engineering until it completely collapsed in an earthquake. The story is even shadier than you can imagine. Welcome to China Uncensored, I'm Chris Chappell. On March 28, a massive 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit Myanmar, leaving more than 2,700 people dead that we know of so far. At the epicenter, the destruction was catastrophic. Even more than 800 miles away in Bangkok, Thailand, tall buildings swayed like trees in the wind, turning rooftop pools into waterfalls. Except for this one. This 33 story, 137 meter tall building just collapsed in on itself like a house of cards. The collapse was instantaneous, killing and trapping dozens. The building was under construction, and was meant to house the State Audit Office of Thailand when completed. How did this happen? I'm sure you can see CP where I'm going with this. It was a flagship construction project for China. The building was being constructed by China Railway No. 10 Engineering Group, a subsidiary of the Chinese state-owned China Railway Engineering Corporation, with a little help from Italian-Thai Development Public Company Limited. Not too long ago, China Railway No. 10 Engineering Group, which sounds like the worst monopoly property, heralded the building as a model of strength and resilience, bragging about it on social media. In addition, multiple Chinese blog posts and articles showcased the project's safety and quality management, and how it supposedly used advanced technology to show better integrity and stability during earthquakes. Yep, that aged fantastically. Since then, Chinese posts about China Railway No. 10 Engineering Group have been scrubbed from the internet. Unlike the wreckage of the building that's still there. But it's not just online information being taken down. A Thai news crew spotted suspicious men smuggling dozens of construction files for the building, away from the construction site and through a fence, to a truck parked at Bongsu Central Station. Because forget any trapped people, we gotta save these papers. The news crew called the police who tracked the trucks, and detained for questioning five Chinese nationals and one Thai interpreter, and seized 37 documents. Only time will tell what those documents hold, but the Thai authorities are also conducting a probe into the Chinese-built high-rise collapse, with a 7-day deadline. I'm sure that's plenty of time to reveal any deeply rooted corruption. This isn't the first time the State Audit Office building has faced scrutiny. Before the building collapsed, anti-corruption investigators had already flagged concerns about delays, worker shortages, and possible corner cutting. You don't say. Next you're going to tell me that Drake isn't the most reliable babysitter. And now an investigation from Thailand's Ministry of Industry has collected samples of construction materials from the site. And initial tests indicate that substandard steel, not ideal for tall buildings, was used. Which would explain why the rods folded like paper clips. This comes as the Thai government has been cracking down on companies producing substandard steel over the past six months. Which officials say use an old production process and equipment relocated from China. The thing is, this is not the first time this sort of thing has happened. Chinese propaganda would have you believe that Chinese construction is out of this world. But this kind of thing happens all the time in China. Chinese companies just don't take safety and quality nearly as seriously as they should. Take for example the middle school gymnasium roof collapse in 2023 that left 11 dead. Or the Changsha collapse in 2022 that left 54 dead. Or the warehouse collapse in 2020 in Harbin that left 9 dead. But hey, those were just this decade. Surely this is a new problem, something that hasn't been going on since then there was this 2016 Wenzhou house collapse. The 2015 Wuyang County building collapse. And more. So much more. But I'd lose my voice if I listed all of them. Now those are just the buildings that buckled. There have also been tons of ground collapses due to shoddy construction. Like this one that happened last year in Shenzhen under a railway building site. Or this one that happened in Chengdu after water pipes under a road suddenly burst. You get the picture. A picture that's more disturbing than one of those AIJD Vance memes. China spends all this money on foreign travel vlog propaganda. Yet things are so corrupt, they can't stop their buildings from collapsing. It's almost like they could have used some of that money to stop cutting corners in construction. This is a problem everywhere China builds. And unfortunately, that's all over the world. China has megaprojects across the globe, and they are falling apart. In Kenya, another China Railway Engineering Corporation subsidiary called China Overseas Engineering Group built a bridge only for that to collapse just two weeks after the president inspected it in 2017. I guess he didn't inspect it closely enough to see it was held up by paper clips and chewing gum. The China Overseas Engineering Group also built a hospital in danger of collapse in Angola. Back in 2010, patients were evacuated after someone discovered deep cracks in the walls of the pediatrics and gynecology wards. So essentially, the women and children would have been the first to die. I guess that's a win for equality, in that they equally don't care who dies. Amazingly, my favorite Chinese state-run media, the Global Times, published that. I'm surprised the headline didn't read, This hospital came down with a case of the whoopsie daisies. China sells itself as a bringer of development to the poor countries of the world. But turns out, it's actually only a bringer of tragedy. What else is new? I'll tell you what's new. Operation Honeypot Phase 3. We've a brand new, free newsletter that we're using to notify you of new episodes. Because you've told us that YouTube won't notify you, even if you're subscribed and have notifications on. There's also lots of fun behind-the-scenes glimpses. You can sign up at ChinaUncensored.Substack.com. And please, keep those comments with the honeypot emojis coming. I love seeing those, and I do read your comments, even if I don't have time to respond to every one. It's meant a lot to me during these tough times. Once again, I'm Chris Chappell. See you next time.