When workers at the Tonghua Steel plant heard of the takeover of their company by the Jianlong Group, they didn’t sit around moping but did something about it:
The crowd piled into the second-floor conference room. Chen Guojen told the workers that if they wanted to say something, they should do it properly instead of this way. The workers replied “Jianlong, get out of Tonghua Steel!” and “Get lost quickly! Tonghua’s business has nothing to do with you Jianlong people!” Someone threw water bottles at Chen Guojun and someone else even took off their work boots and threw them at him. Someone picked up a chair to throw at Chen but missed.
Seeing what was happening, Chen Guojun sternly demanded the workers to return to their work posts “or else you are all fired!” When the workers heard him say that, they got angrier. They dragged Chen Guojun into the corridor where they punched and kicked him. This first beating was not very serious as Chen Guojun was able to get away and hide.
Almost every burglary-proof door on the second floor of the Old Coking building was smashed. There was a big hole in the wall and broken glass all over the floor. When people realized that Chen Guojun had disappeared, they searched the rooms one by one. So Chen Guojun was eventually found. But Chen insisted on maintaining his tough attitude. “He said, ‘If I so much have one breath left in me, I will make sure that all of you are fired tomorrow!'” The reaction was an even more severe beating. Eyewitnesses said that Chen Guojun was beaten at least three times. On the last occasion, he was sent tumbling down from the second floor to the first floor by a kick.
“He laid on the ground, breathing heavily. He could not speak anymore.” The time was 16:30 or so. The remaining blast furnace number 7 had also shut down and ceased production. The Tonghua Steel and Iron Factory was totally idled.
Jamie has the background to this incident. Prog Gold does not necessarily condone the beating to death of tyrannical bosses.