Bangkok tower collapse: Chinese contractors under scrutiny amid ‘tofu building’ claims

The Chinese embassy in Bangkok has called for full cooperation with the Thai authorities’ investigation into the State Audit Office collapse

Reading Time:3 minutes

Rescuers conduct a search for survivors on Friday at the site of the collapsed State Audit Office tower building in Bangkok. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 1:00pm, 2 Apr 2025Updated: 5:36pm, 2 Apr 2025

The collapse of a 30-storey tower in Thailand’s capital during last week’s earthquake has raised questions about the use of shoddy building materials and alleged corruption in the Thai construction industry tied to Chinese contractors.

At least 13 people died when the State Audit Office tower in Bangkok’s Chatuchak district crumbled to the ground on Friday, with thermal imaging suggesting scores of bodies remain buried in the wreckage.

The under-construction skyscraper was the only building in the city to collapse, despite thousands of others swaying and cracking from the tremor, whose epicentre was in neighbouring Myanmar.

Construction on the tower – a joint venture between Thailand’s Italian-Thai Development company and China Railway Number 10 Engineering Group, a local subsidiary of China’s state-owned China Railway Group – began in 2020, but the US$60 million project had already faced delays and allegations of irregularities.

A composite picture of satellite images shows the under-construction tower in Bangkok on December 25 (left) and after it had collapsed on Friday. Photo: Planet Labs PBC/Reuters

Tests on steel rebar used in the building revealed substandard materials in some samples, according to Nontichai Likhitaporn, inspections director at the Thai Industrial Standards Institute. Investigators have yet to confirm whether the materials caused the collapse, however.