Only one building in Bangkok fell during the earthquake on Friday that rocked Myanmar, hundreds of miles away. Recovery efforts continue with at least 15 people killed and dozens still missing. Determining the cause could take months.

上周五在数百公里外的缅甸发生地震期间，曼谷只有一栋建筑倒塌。救援工作仍在继续，至少15人死亡，数十人失踪。确定事故原因可能需要数月时间。

But interviews with workers who had been on the site, together with early official findings, highlighted potential problems with construction design and quality.

但对现场工人的采访，以及早期的官方调查结果，凸显了建筑设计和质量方面的潜在问题。

At the center of the scrutiny is China Railway 10th Engineering Group, a Chinese state-owned company with about a dozen other projects in Thailand and whose contractors tried to remove documents from the site after the disaster.

中铁十局是此次调查的焦点，这家中国国有企业在泰国还有十几个其他项目，灾难发生后，该公司的承包商试图从现场移走文件。

Behind that Chinese company is its parent, China Railway Group — a Chinese infrastructure giant with soaring debt, a hunger for new projects and subsidiaries facing accusations of weak safety in several countries.

这家中国公司背后的母公司中国国家铁路集团是一家负债累累、急需新项目的中国基础设施巨头，其子公司在几个国家面临安全薄弱的指责。

Workers in Bangkok told The New York Times that China Railway 10th, which was part of a consortium constructing the building, underpaid contractors who turned to lower quality materials, and used columns narrower than usual.

曼谷的工人告诉《纽约时报》，中铁十局是该建筑施工财团的成员之一，他们向承包商支付了较低的报酬，这些承包商使用的材料质量较差，而且使用了比平常更窄的立柱。

Thai officials testing twisted metal from the ruins said they found substandard steel bars — made by a Thai factory with Chinese owners that the authorities had shut down in December.

泰国官员对废墟中扭曲的金属进行了检测，称他们发现了不合格的钢筋，这些钢筋由一家泰国工厂制造，工厂的所有者是中国人，当局已于去年12月关闭了这家工厂。

An anti-corruption watchdog also said it had flagged construction irregularities at the 30-story tower before March 28, when fleeing workers watched the high-rise implode.

一家反腐败监督机构还表示，在3月28日逃离的工人们眼睁睁地看着这栋30层的高楼坍塌之前，该机构就已经发现了施工过程中的违规行为。

“The pillars on the third floor — where I stood and looked back — the beams didn’t burst,” said Netiphong Phatthong, 38, an electrician who barely escaped, waiting at the site for news about his missing friends on Tuesday. “They crumbled as the metals inside were squashed.”

“我站在三楼的柱子那里往后看，横梁并没有破裂，”38岁的电工内提蓬·帕通说，周二，勉强逃过一劫的他在现场等待失踪朋友的消息。“由于里面的金属被挤压，它们碎裂了。”

Thai officials, describing the collapse as a blow to the country’s image, have moved aggressively to investigate the consortium with the $62 million construction contract for the tower. It had been meant to house government auditors.

泰国官员将此次倒塌事件描述为对国家形象的打击，他们已采取积极行动，调查与该大厦签订6200万美元建筑合同的财团。这座大厦原本是为政府审计员提供的办公场所。

At a cabinet meeting Tuesday, Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra ordered the authorities to also scrutinize all projects in Thailand involving China Railway 10th. She did not mention whether the parent company would be investigated.

在周二的内阁会议上，泰国总理佩通坦·钦那瓦下令当局也要审查泰国所有涉及中铁十局的项目。她没有提及中铁十局的母公司是否会受到调查。

“We really need to find an answer,” Ms. Paetongtarn told reporters. “We need to tell the people and the world what happened in Thailand.”

“我们确实需要找到一个答案，”佩通坦告诉记者。“我们需要告诉人民和全世界，在泰国发生了什么。”

周三，泰国总理佩通坦·钦那瓦在大楼倒塌现场问候等待消息的人们。

Under Pressure

压力之下

The joint venture for the 30-story tower was registered in Thailand in 2018. It included a Thai developer, Italian-Thai Development, but according to workers, daily operations were run by China Railway 10th.

这座30层高楼的合资项目于2018年在泰国注册，其中包括泰国开发商意大利-泰国开发公司，但据工人说，日常运营由中铁十局负责。

A promotional video that the Chinese company recently released showed drone footage of the building and praised the quality of its construction. China Railway 10th is also responsible for an airport terminal in southern Thailand that was supposed to be finished in January but was less than 40 percent complete as of March, according to the transport ministry.

这家中国公司最近发布的一段宣传视频展示了无人机拍摄的该建筑画面，赞扬了其建筑质量。中铁十局还负责泰国南部的一个机场航站楼，据泰国交通部称，该航站楼本应在1月份完工，但截至3月，完工不足40%。

China Railway 10th’s Bangkok office did not respond to emails seeking comment. The Chinese Embassy, in a statement on Facebook, urged Chinese companies to cooperate with the Thai government’s investigation.

中铁十局曼谷办事处没有回复寻求置评的电子邮件。中国大使馆在Facebook上发表声明，敦促中国企业配合泰国政府的调查。

China Railway Group, the parent company, got its start building most of China’s almost 30,000 miles of high-speed rail lines. But in recent years, as demand for new projects at home faded, the company and its subsidiaries have expanded their scope in a rush to bring in work.

中铁十局的母公司中国国家铁路集团以修建了中国约4.5万公里高铁线路中的大部分起家。但近年来，随着国内对新项目的需求减弱，该公司及其子公司扩大了业务范围，急于招揽工程。

Its timing often coincided with Chinese government priorities. In 2019, as Beijing sought closer ties in the Pacific, China Railway Group bought a dormant gold mine in the Solomon Islands. Workers there told The Times that safety concerns were often ignored.

其时机往往与中国政府的优先事项一致。2019年，随着北京寻求在太平洋地区建立更紧密的关系，中铁集团在所罗门群岛购买了一座休眠金矿。那里的工人告诉时报，安全问题经常被忽视。

Along the way, the company’s debt soared. Its 2024 annual report shows total liabilities worth $211 billion, almost double the $112 billion that the company carried five years ago.

在此过程中，该公司的债务飙升。其2024年年报显示，该公司的总负债为1.74万亿元，几乎是五年前8107亿元的两倍。

Victor Shih, a specialist in Chinese politics and finance at the University of California, San Diego, said that when a company has such a heavy debt burden, “the pressure to generate cash flow to service debt can be quite intense.”

加州大学圣地亚哥分校研究中国政治和金融的专家史宗瀚说，当一家公司背负如此沉重的债务负担时，“产生现金流来偿还债务的压力可能相当大”。

Another China Railway subsidiary has been blamed — along with allegedly corrupt officials — for the collapse of a train station canopy in Serbia last November, which killed 15 people.

去年11月，塞尔维亚一座火车站顶篷倒塌，造成15人死亡，中铁集团的另一家子公司与涉嫌腐败的官员一起受到指责。

Adding strain in Bangkok, construction was behind schedule. The building was less than half-finished despite a 2020 start. Mana Nimitmongkol, president of the Anti-Corruption Organization of Thailand, said the government had threatened to cancel the project in 2024 because of delays.

在曼谷，施工进度落后于计划，这给该公司带来了更大的压力。尽管该建筑于2020年开工，但完工还不到一半。泰国反腐败组织主席玛纳·尼米蒙空表示，由于项目延误，政府曾威胁要在2024年取消该项目。

Adding suspicion, four Chinese nationals who identified themselves as subcontractors were caught on camera the day after the earthquake removing documents from an office behind the rubble. They told the authorities it was for an insurance claim. The police seized the documents; the men were detained, then released.

更令人起疑的是，四名自称分包商的中国公民在地震发生第二天被监控摄像拍到从废墟后面的一间办公室里移走文件。他们告诉当局那是为了保险索赔。警察没收了文件；这些人被拘留，然后被释放。

周三，救援人员从废墟中找到一具遇难者遗体。

Weak Materials

强度不够的材料

Structural engineers in Bangkok struggled to understand why the building buckled all at once.

曼谷的结构工程师很难理解这座建筑为什么一下子就坍塌了。

Pennung Warnitchai, director of Earthquake Research Center of Thailand, who helped draft Bangkok’s earthquake-resistant standards, said that the building should have been able to stay up. The ground motion detected in Bangkok after the earthquake struck, he said, “was about one-third to one-half of the level we consider in the design of typical buildings.”

参与起草曼谷抗震标准的泰国地震研究中心主任彭侬·瓦尼猜说，这座建筑本来应该能够屹立不倒。他说，地震发生后，在曼谷检测到的地面运动，“大约是我们在设计典型建筑时考虑水平的三分之一到二分之一。”

Thailand generally follows an American model for earthquake protection, which means skyscrapers start with a reinforced concrete core. The core is typically a rectangular shaft in a building’s center, with floors and vertical support columns emanating outward.

泰国基本上遵循美国的防震模式，即摩天大楼以钢筋混凝土为核心。核心通常是位于建筑物中心的矩形竖井，楼层和垂直支撑柱向外延伸。

In the case of the building that fell, the designers set the core off-center, said Mr. Pennung, adding that he saw the plans. Other buildings with a similar design did not collapse. But because the earthquake’s distance created longer periods between waves of motion, and with much of Bangkok built on soft soil, he said, the building may have both swayed and twisted, compounding the danger.

彭侬说，在倒塌的那座建筑中，设计师把核心设置在偏离中心的位置。他还说，他看过设计图。其他类似设计的建筑没有倒塌。但他说，由于地震距离较远，地震波之间的间隔时间较长，而且曼谷的大部分地区都建在软土上，建筑物可能既摇晃又扭曲，从而加剧了危险。

Mr. Pennung and several other engineers stressed it was too early to determine the cause of the collapse. Steel quality, design, work standards and soil could all play a role. But he said that evidence from workers and officials gathered so far, plus video footage of the quake, suggested that the core and supporting pillars or columns gave way on the lower floors.

彭侬和其他几位工程师强调，现在确定坍塌的原因还为时过早。钢材质量、设计、工作标准和土壤都可能发挥作用。但他说，迄今为止，从工作人员和官员那里收集到的证据，加上地震的视频片段，都表明，较低楼层的核心和支撑柱发生了坍塌。

“It seems that it collapsed from the bottom, not the top,” he said.

“它似乎是从底部而不是顶部倒塌的，”他说。

Other experts agreed that the building did not topple so much as drop, which corresponds with accounts from workers who escaped at the last minute.

其他专家一致认为，相比从顶部倒塌，大楼更像是从底部倒塌，这与在最后一刻逃生的工人的说法相符。

Six employees from the downed building, who worked from the third to the 10th floors, said that the project often seemed unsafe. Some of the issues they reported were relatively minor: many workers wore sneakers rather than steel-toed boots; requirements for a harness on higher floors were ignored.

当时在倒塌大楼三楼至十楼作业的六名员工表示，这个项目经常显得不安全。他们报告的一些问题相对较小：许多工人穿运动鞋，而不是钢头靴子；在较高楼层使用安全带的要求被忽视。

Three workers with experience on several lower floors said the columns of the building were thinner than those they had seen at other high-rise construction sites. Apichat Chaihlao, who worked on the eighth floor, said his supervisor was so concerned that he measured the columns himself “and he said these pillars are not right.”

三名在较低楼层工作过的工人说，这栋楼的柱子比他们在其他高层建筑工地看到的要细。在八楼工作的阿皮察·柴劳说，他的主管非常担心，亲自测量了这些柱子，“他说这些柱子不对。”

“I didn’t think about it at that time, but now,” he added, “compared to the other projects I’ve worked on, that floor did not look sturdy.”

“我当时没有想到这一点，但现在看来，”他还说，“和我参与过的其他项目相比，那块地板看起来并不结实。”

Two subcontractors, who declined to give their names out of fear of reprisal by their employer, said Chinese managers often disregarded suggestions from Thai counterparts and used lowball contracts that led to lower quality materials.

两名因担心遭到雇主报复而拒绝透露姓名的分包商表示，中国管理人员经常无视泰国同行的建议，采用低报价合同，导致材料质量下降。

Reports about the China Railway Group’s subsidiary in Serbia also highlighted a lack of quality control. There, an engineer who had worked on the station with the fatal collapse said that a contractor hired by the Chinese consortium in charge had ignored design specifications and added extra concrete to the canopy.

关于中铁集团在塞尔维亚子公司的报道也凸显了质量控制的缺失。在那里，一名曾参与发生致命坍塌事故的车站工程的工程师说，负责该事故的中国财团雇佣的一名承包商无视设计规范，在顶棚上额外添加了混凝土。

11月，塞尔维亚一座火车站顶篷倒塌，造成15人死亡，工人们检查顶篷。

Nonthichai Likitaporn, director of the Thai Industrial Standards Institute, said the problems with the Bangkok building included using steel that was too weak.

泰国工业标准研究所所长农提猜·利基塔蓬表示，曼谷大楼的问题包括使用的钢材强度太弱。

Samples of steel bars in two sizes that were collected from the site failed tests by the Iron and Steel Institute of Thailand for their mass, chemistry and ability to handle pressure. Other samples met the required standards, Mr. Nonthichai said, but the problematic metal was made by the same Chinese company: Xin Ke Yuan Steel Co., which had a factory in Thailand’s Rayong province.

从现场收集的两种规格的钢筋样品在质量、化学性质和抗压能力方面未通过泰国钢铁协会的测试。农提猜说，其他样品符合要求标准，但有问题的金属是由同一家中国公司生产的：新科原钢铁有限公司，该公司在泰国罗勇府有一家工厂。

Thai authorities closed the factory in December, citing risks to safety after an accident involving gas leaks. They seized more than 2,400 tons of steel after tests found that its rebar did not meet approved criteria for its ribbing height and boron content, undermining adhesion with concrete and weakening its strength.

泰国当局在去年12月关闭了这家工厂，理由是发生一起涉及天然气泄漏的事故后存在安全风险。他们查获了2400多吨钢材，此前的测试发现，这些钢筋的肋高和硼含量不符合批准的标准，破坏了与混凝土的粘合力，削弱了混凝土的强度。

The authorities also demanded that the company’s executives recall any steel already sold. It is not clear that they did that.

政府还要求该公司高管召回已售出的所有钢材。目前尚不清楚他们是否已执行。

The company could not be reached for comment at the phone number listed on its website.

记者无法通过该公司网站上列出的电话号码联系到该公司置评。

Chinese construction networks led by state-owned firms have played major roles in Bangkok’s recent building boom, adding apartments, train lines and other projects. The Thai government has increasingly close relations with China, which is Thailand’s largest investor. Last month, at Beijing’s request, Thailand deported 40 Uyghur asylum seekers back to China, drawing a sharp rebuke from U.N. officials and activists who had long warned that the men would possibly face torture and imprisonment upon their return.

以国有企业为首的中国建筑网络在曼谷最近的建筑热潮中发挥了重要作用，为其增添了公寓、铁路和其他项目。泰国政府与中国的关系日益密切，中国是泰国最大的投资国。上个月，应北京要求，泰国将40名寻求庇护的维吾尔人遣返回中国，这引起了联合国官员和活动人士的强烈谴责，他们长期以来一直警告称，这些人回国后可能会面临酷刑和监禁。

Within China, Beijing has sought to censor coverage and discussion of the collapsed building. An explanatory story about the building’s structure by an investigative news outlet, Caixin, and a short piece by the official news agency, Xinhua, about the casualties caused by the collapse, were removed soon after they were published.

在中国国内，北京试图审查有关这栋倒塌建筑的报道和讨论。调查新闻媒体财新网一篇关于该大楼结构的解释性报道，以及官方新闻机构新华社的一篇关于大楼倒塌造成人员伤亡的短文在发表后不久就被删除了。

But in Thailand, fears of tall buildings are now common — and outrage has soared.

但在泰国，对高层建筑的恐惧现在已经很普遍，愤怒情绪也随之高涨。

“Thailand’s public sentiment has been increasingly critical of Chinese business presence and government dealings,” said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a professor of political science and international relations at Chulalongkorn University.

朱拉隆功大学政治学和国际关系教授提提南·蓬苏迪拉克说，“泰国公众对中国企业的存在和政府交易的批评日益强烈。”

“The collapse of the Chinese-built building,” he added, “is likely to reinforce this critical view.”

“中国打造的建筑倒塌，”他还说，“可能会强化这种批评的观点。”