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Chinese exec beaten to death
A Chinese executive of a state steel company has been beaten to death by angry workers, prompting the firm to abandon privatisation plans. Chen Guojun had been surrounded by a mob of around 30,000 workers outside the offices of Tonghua Iron & Steel. The workers were protesting about lay-offs from state firms in industries targeted for consolidation. In the 1990s the government made about 50m workers redundant in state enterprises.