ABSTRACT
In late March 2007 a number of migrant workers from Sichuan were trapped in the works of a new underground train link at Suzhou Qiao station in the university district of Beijing. Several were injured and six were killed. Neither the company nor the metropolitan government was forthcoming on the incident at first, but news was leaked via the other workers’ mobile phones, and three days later some commentators in the Chinese press were calling for permanent memorials to workers who have died in the construction of new Beijing. The additional underground train link was of course part of the enormous efforts to construct a ‘new Olympics new Beijing’ for 2008.
