http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-311460,00.html China's cable firms fight deadly turf war
From Oliver August in Shanying May 30, 2002
"CLAD in a blue China Telecom jacket proclaiming We protect the nations cables, Hao Dawei sets off at sunrise from his parents mudbrick home in Shanying to ride his motorcycle along the route of his state-owned companys main cable to Beijing, 300 miles to the west. On the road to Huairen he finds 100 workers digging a trench right on top of the China Telecom line. He jumps off his bike. Stop immediately, he shouts. You'll cut our cable. The gang glare at him. Hao Dawei knows the type. They work for one of the many rival telecom companies who are laying their own cables. He calls for backup, but the five colleagues who arrive within minutes are no match for the workers. Soon 20 of them are beating the 26-year-old patrol rider as a crouches in the grass. His colleagues flee and he ends up in hospital having stitches in his head."