China’s Tofu-Dreg Bridge Gives Way: Steel Pipes Break, Over 10 Anglers Plunge Into Water—All Missing

Videos and photos circulating online on the afternoon of October 24th showed several cable conduits broken along one side of Lianyang Bridge in Shantou, Guangdong. The bridge is one of three major bridges in Chenghai. Online accounts said more than a dozen people standing on the conduits to fish fell into the water, causing multiple deaths. People online condemned the incident, saying, shoddy construction has killed people again. Local fishing chat groups said many people were standing on the pipes to fish when the pipe suddenly broke. More than a dozen fell in, one message said. Not a single one has been found. One local person said they had seen more than a dozen people sitting there while passing the bridge. Another said they had seen them too. I don't think I've ever seen that many people there. They caught a really big grass carp. Chinese state media reported on October 25th that the bridge had three pipes. Several people were standing on them to fish when the accident happened, but the number who fell into the river was unknown. Local officials said an investigation and search and rescue efforts were underway. People online speculated that no one had been rescued because officials had not announced how many people were saved. Some people online accused the Chinese Communist Party of allowing substandard public infrastructure to cost people their lives. Others questioned how steel pipes could break, especially with so many laid side by side. The Chenghai District Emergency Management Bureau in Shantou did not issue a statement until late on October 26. It said it had received a report at 2.34pm on October 24 that people had fallen into the water at Lianyang Bridge. According to the statement, three people fell in. Two swam ashore on their own and left. The third was found dead on the morning of October 26. The CCP's history of concealing the truth leaves the actual number of deaths and injuries unclear. One commentary said an avoidable tragedy had taken more than a dozen lives. It blamed poor public infrastructure and ineffective safety maintenance for the deaths of innocent people. It called for an end to construction shortcuts and meaningful enforcement of safety rules. It said those responsible must be held accountable for the deaths. Shoddy construction is widespread in mainland China, where bridge collapses and construction defects keep occurring. A person in Shuyang County, Jiangsu, posted a video on October 8th showing damage to a pier of the Xiyi River Grand Bridge on the Tongyue Route. gravel in the concrete surface was loose, and sand and stone was falling away. Large sections of reinforcing steel were exposed, leaving clearly visible damage. Reports said a resident fishing there first spotted the problem and contacted the authorities. The potential danger to bridge traffic raised public concern. Another shoddy project, one person wrote. Another said, it looks like the concrete wasn't properly vibrated when it was poured and cement slurry leaked out. An employee of Shuyang County Transportation Bureau, said the bridge was built more than a decade ago. The person in charge of the original project could no longer be found. A construction crew would be sent to immediately address the damage. People online challenged that response. Construction projects have records. There must be a record of who was responsible. Another wrote, Being more than a decade old doesn't excuse this. Large areas of exposed steel are a warning that the bridge is unsafe. Proper routine inspection should have caught it before anyone had to report it. The transportation bureau's promise to send a crew immediately is not enough. People's lives are at stake. Investigate who was responsible for maintenance before the bridge collapses. A section of road suddenly collapsed at the intersection of Xincheng Road and Jiangyi Street in Weinan, Shaanxi, on the afternoon of October 22. A truck carrying ready-mix concrete fell into the hole. Its rear sank, leaving the cab pointing high into the air. The driver was unharmed. The exit of a highway tunnel collapsed somewhere in China. It happened during daylight and was spotted in time, so no one was hurt. No reinforcing steel is visible in the highway's base. Construction costs about $2.2 million per mile. A person familiar with the industry said many municipal projects in China are poorly built because making money comes first. Quality may get some attention when the economy is strong. When it is weak, corners are cut. In recent years, many contractors have been caught in large municipal projects without getting paid. Some have debts of tens of millions or even more than 100 million yuan, roughly tens of millions of US dollars. They have little recourse when officials refuse to pay. That encourages crews to do the bare minimum. Much of the massive infrastructure people take pride in could become a serious hazard in the future. A video posted online on October 18 showed a a loose safety railing near Aotou Park in Huizhou, Guangdong. It wobbled when touched. The person filming said, This is really dangerous. If someone leans on it, it'll fall over. The video showed a row of lotus-shaped stone railings beside the road. When the person filming moved a horizontal section by hand, it separated from the vertical post and kept rocking. There was water below the railing. The same problem appeared at both ends. A reporter with Hua Xiang Daily's Dafang News sent a person who posted the video a private message on October 19 but received no reply. A building can collapse without warning, leaving residents no chance to escape. These are preventable, human-caused disasters. Similar collapses have happened repeatedly in recent years. Yet every building is supposed to pass multiple safety inspections, final approval, and registration before it is handed over. A person posted a video on X showing half the top of the building collapsing in Baisha Avenue, Nanming, Guangxi. The post described it as a shocking example of shoddy construction. Part of a classroom ceiling suddenly fell at Fujian Normal University's Qishan campus while students were in class. Some students were injured by falling chunks of concrete. Buildings have repeatedly collapsed without warning across China in recent years. These incidents have caused widespread fear. They are often linked to construction shortcuts and hidden defects rather than isolated natural disasters. Inspection agencies, approval offices, and regulators receive payment, yet overlook problems during inspections. After an accident, they deny knowledge and shift responsibility. This is the result of bureaucracy combined with shoddy construction. Chinese Communist Party officials focus on political achievements and appearances. Contractors cut corners to make money. Regulators go through the motions and collect benefits. Ordinary people pay with their lives. A collapsed building can be rebuilt, but lives cannot be replaced, and no one takes responsibility. A video posted on September 15 criticized construction quality at Phase 2 of Yue Lu Qingqian at Huaihua, Hunan. The person filming repeatedly poked a damaged part of the ceiling with a wooden stick. dust and debris kept falling. The person called it shoddy construction and said it was more fragile than tofu. This is another example of shoddy construction in China. The exterior walls peel away in layers like paper and falls off into the wind. People online condemned the danger to others. They demanded to know who would be responsible if falling material injured someone passing by or caused an even more serious accident. Is your boss here yet? Look at the work you've done. This work, is it acceptable? Even you can't stand looking at it, right? You're an experienced tradesman. I didn't want to give you a hard time. Why isn't your boss here yet? I messaged him on WeChat. This isn't professional work, you know. Yesterday, I wanted to dig it out for you. I think you should have handled it yourselves. Even if it's not perfect, it should at least look decent. Damn, look at this. If it hadn't rained, we wouldn't know what they mixed into this concrete. Can you use rocks like these in concrete? There are rounded pebbles too. It looks like they reuse waste material. Look at this shoddy work. Look inside. Is that even cement? Let's take a look. Is this cement? Shoddy construction. This is a highway bridge. This is what the bridge at the highway exit looks like. There could be a safety problem here. Look underneath the elevated highway. This looks dangerous. I want to know how the manager approved this in the first place. This project costs 20 million yuan. And look at this railing. It's so flimsy. Look how thin it is, guys. Take a good look. This is how slapdash the work is. Everyone is cutting corners on everyone else. Look, they didn't even put expansion anchors inside. Watch this video. They're using a crane to demolish an old bridge pier. Once they break through the reinforced concrete shell, sand keeps pouring out. I thought bridge piers were cast in concrete. I didn't expect this one to be filled with sand. I don't understand. I thought it was supposed to be solid concrete inside. Someone who knows, please explain how this works. Guys, the road has collapsed. It poured all night last night. Water rushing down the mountain washed the road out. You can't get through here now. Be careful if you're coming this way. Boss, boss, you'll have to pay me more to work on this crane. Look at it yourself. What kind of tower crane is this? If I hadn't pulled back to check, one step with my weight and I'd fall straight through, Look, it's rusted through with a huge hole. I don't understand how this passed inspection. Look, it's all rotted away. Look at these columns. They're all like this. I wouldn't dare park here, let alone live here. Look, it's all rusted. This cement, this concrete. Look at it. I wouldn't feel safe living here. See this? This is a load-bearing column. A load-bearing column, see? It's not just one side. All four sides are cracked. Every side is cracked. Videos and reports circulating online expose long-standing problems in construction. Cutting corners, using inferior materials, inflating the amount of work billed, breaking construction rules, passing contracts through multiple layers, and weak oversight. These problems keep coming to public attention. After accidents, those responsible often blame one another. Once public attention fades, things seem to return to the way they were. construction quality has repeatedly led to major safety disasters. A tiered arch beam collapsed during construction of the Yuegan Bridge on the Bianshan Route in Jiangsu on February 2, 2026. Officials said five people died. More than 20 workers were on the deck, tying reinforcing bars and doing other finishing work. The bridge's main steel span collapsed into the Tongyu River. Several construction machines and workboats sank. China Railway 12th Bureau Group was building the bridge under a 202 million yuan contract, about 28 million US dollars. It was originally scheduled to open in September 2026. The Hongqi Bridge in Barkham, Sichuan collapsed on November 11, 2025. No one was killed or injured. Direct economic losses totaled over 27 million yuan, about 4 million US dollars. A major collapse at the Jiansha Yellow River Grand Bridge construction project, left 16 people dead or missing on August 22, 2025. The contractor was China Railway Major Bridge Engineering Group's No. 7 engineering company. Heavy rain and flash flooding hit Dasui County, Shanxi, on July 19, 2024. Part of Bridge No. 2 on the Shui Yang section of the Danning Expressway collapsed, sending 25 vehicles into the river. Officials said 62 people were dead or missing. Several major factors contribute to widespread shoddy construction in China. First, the drive for profit encourages contractors to cut corners. Construction projects, especially those commissioned by governments or state-owned companies, often pass through multiple layers of subcontractors. The main contractor divides the work among several firms. Each layer takes a cut, leaving limited funds for the crews doing the work. They use less material and simplify construction methods to get by. Repeated cuts to material costs increase the risk of defects. Second, oversight often exists only on paper. Inspection agencies and approval offices take payments and perform superficial tasks. Reports often mark projects as passing, even when their strength and stability fall short of standards. Supervisors have financial ties to contractors, making independent oversight difficult. Officials focus on progress and visible achievements instead of visiting sites to check for hazards. Third, collusion between officials and businesses creates networks of corruption. Public works involve enormous sums, and corruption is common from contract awards and designed through construction and final approval. Quality and safety suffer when inferior materials win contracts, approval reports are falsified, or records are altered afterward. Investigations have repeatedly uncovered forged documents and cover-ups of fraud. Fourth, accountability is weak. Unlike the strict lifetime accountability systems in Europe and the United States, many accidents in China never lead to a full accounting of responsibility. Officials often blame once-in-a-century natural disasters or geological conditions downplaying human causes. Those responsible usually face internal party discipline or administrative penalties. Strict criminal prosecution and full civic compensation are rare. Even when there is accountability, it often stops with lower-level staff. Senior decision-makers and the source of corruption remain untouched. The result is a cycle of rebuilding after disasters and inflating GDP figures again. Shoddy construction linked to the CCP's Belt and Road Initiative has spread abroad. A recent incident in Uganda brought renewed scrutiny of China's infrastructure exports. A new mayor of Kampala, Uganda, sharply criticized a China Railway Construction Corporation drainage project during a site visit on September 20th. He vowed to drive the CCP's construction crews out of Uganda. Mayor Ronald Balimwezo pointed to visible problems with some drainage pipes and concrete. He also identified flaws in the drainage system's design that left it unable to handle the rainy season. Heavy rain could damage roads, cause flooding, and destroy property. Balimwezo confronted the contractor over the poor work and wondered if such quality would pass inspection in China. He then ordered the affected road section torn up and rebuilt. The contractor, China Railway 18th Bureau Group, later apologized and redid the work. Balimwezo had a background in civil engineering, giving him the expertise to assess construction quality. He personally inspected the site instead of relying on official briefings. His firm response won support from many people in Uganda. CCP state media promote Belt and Road projects by describing Chinese state-owned companies as technically skilled, highly experienced, compliant with local standards. They call these projects projects of the century that benefit humanity. Yet projects can pose hidden dangers for participating countries. Many Belt and Road projects have long been controversial. CCP officials and local elites use them to share profits, while ordinary people who need better living conditions may see little benefit. Many projects generate too little revenue to repay their loans or cover operating costs. Ports, mineral resources, and land can end up being used to settle debts. What remains may be debt, unfinished projects, and poorly built infrastructure that cannot withstand severe weather. Local taxpayers bear the consequences.