China Shanshui Cement Group Ltd has said that its executives were "attacked with pepper spray, smoke bombs and water guns and then held for two hours" by associates of a former official when they tried to retake control of company property.
According to the Securities Times publication, Shanshui Cement executives organised a crowd of around 600 people, wearing red armbands, white gloves and wielding sticks and axes, to storm and gain control of a company facility in the city of Jinan.
The abnormally hostile corporate battle is the latest development in current management’s dispute with its former employee Mi Jingtian. Accusing him of suspected misconduct, the company had said in December 2016 that it had suspended Mi from his duties at unit Shandong Shanshui and all its subsidiaries.