Workers in Jilin Province, China, Riot and Kill Boss Over Layoffs

The Chinese working class is the great "Invisible" to the West, whose contact with Chinese people mostly comes through its professional class. Given that the world's production lies in the hands of this "Invisible" working class, it has a tremendous amount of unrealized power. My guess is that they are quite a bit more militant then imagined by most Western commentators.

Some 30,000 angry Chinese workers staged a riot at a steel factory in China that resulted in its boss getting beaten to death, underscoring just how quickly economic problems can stoke social unrest. The workers were protesting the sale of state-owned Tonghua Iron & Steel in Jilin province to a private group which they feared would lead to the loss of jobs.

Note: Jilin Province borders North Korea.