Hanoi: A 1,000-strong mob stormed a Taiwanese steel mill in Vietnam overnight, killing at least one Chinese worker and injuring 90, Taiwan’s ambassador said on Thursday, the first deadly incident in a wave of anti-China protests prompted by Beijing’s deployment of an oil rig in disputed seas.
The spreading unrest is emerging as a major challenge for Vietnam’s authoritarian and secretive leadership, and is damaging the country’s reputation as an investment destination. Companies from Taiwan, many of which employ significant numbers of Chinese nationals, are bearing the brunt of the protests and violence.
The overnight riot took place at a mill in Ha Tinh province in central Vietnam, 250 kilometres south of Hanoi, operated by the conglomerate Formosa Plastics Group, one of the biggest foreign investors in Vietnam, according to Ambassador Huang Chih-peng and local hospital officials. Huang, who spoke to a member of the management team at the mill this morning, said rioters lit fires at several buildings and hunted down the Chinese workers, but did not target the Taiwanese management. He said the head of the provincial government and its security chief were at the mill during the riot but did not “order tough enough action.” He said he was told one Chinese citizen was killed in the riots, while another died of natural causes during the unrest. He said around 90 others were injured. (AP)