China’s Belt and Road Initiative projects are being scrutinized in Thailand after Myanmar’s 7.7 earthquake pancaked a 30-floor building 966 kilometers (600 miles) away that Chinese engineers were constructing in Bangkok.

The incomplete skyscraper was the only building to collapse in the lightly damaged Thai capital. But the disaster exposed allegedly substandard steel reinforcing rods that had snapped, reducing the building to a huge rubble pile that crushed about 87 construction workers, including 15 confirmed dead and 72 who disappeared.

“We must investigate thoroughly because a significant portion of the budget was allocated, and the deadline for completion had been extended,” Paetongtarn said.

The investigation began with a bizarre, troubling sight. Two days after the March 28. The investigation began with a bizarre, troubling sight. Two days after the March 28 quake, four Chinese men were filmed grabbing in their arms as many construction-related documents as they could carry and running away from the rubble site.

Police detained, questioned and released them. China’s embassy in Bangkok and Thailand’s powerful interior ministry, which oversees the police, met to discuss the skyscraper’s collapse, but their talks were not made public.

Source: Asiatimes