Chinese contractor of collapsed Bangkok building under scrutiny

Angry public questions project's construction quality, due process in awarding contracts

- Philip Wen

BANGKOK - In promotional material posted on its official social media channels in 2024, China Railway No. 10 Engineering Group declared that its first super high-rise project built overseas would duly become its "calling card" in Thailand.

A video on the state-owned Chinese contractor's Douyin account boasted soaring drone shots of the more than 30-storey building in Bangkok, set to a frantic music score. The skyscraper bore a red banner emblazoned with Chinese characters marking the "auspicious" occasion of the tower's "topping out", a construction milestone referring to the completion of a building's structural framework.

On its official WeChat public account, the company detailed technical features of the 137m-tall structure, along with photos of beaming officials in white uniforms and wearing hard hats, posing behind yet another red banner.

On March 28, the unfinished building, intended to house the Thai government's state audit office, collapsed after a 7.7-magnitude earthquake. More than 100 people are estimated to have been working on the structure at the time.

Later that day, the promotional posts were no longer found on China Railway's accounts.

Despite the significantly more catastrophic devastation at the earthquake's epicentre in neighbouring Myanmar, where the death toll exceeded 2,000 around three days later, the Bangkok building collapse has become one of the disaster's defining images — its location just across the bustling Chatuchak Market ensured dramatic footage of the destruction was captured from multiple angles and circulated widely online.