Beijing, March 14

Thousands of miners in China’s coal-rich northeast have gone on strike over months of unpaid wages, amid fears of mass layoffs as the government seeks to restructure lumbering state-owned industries.

Social unrest is anathema to China’s Communist leaders, making the threat of worker discontent a disincentive to the hard choices analysts see as necessary to reform the world’s second-largest economy.

Video seen by AFP today showed protesters marching through streets of Shuangyashan city in Heilongjiang province, venting their frustration at Longmay Mining Holding Group, the biggest coal firm in northeast China.

Pictures showed enormous crowds filling the streets. “I’m on my knees, my family can’t eat,” an elderly woman pleaded with a man who appeared to be government official. “Tell me, how can we live?” she shouted, before collapsing and being rushed away by fellow protesters.

The situation in Heilongjiang exemplifies dilemma faced by Chinese authorities, who say they want to change the economic model to one driven by consumer demand rather than infrastructure investment and exports.

China’s state-owned enterprises are plagued by overcapacity and many are unviable, but government has been loathe to kill off such ‘zombie’ companies, fearing unemployment could lead to instability.

Nevertheless, it plans to lay off about 1.8 million workers in the steel and coal industries.