Systemic Flotation, Youth Submerged
— The Deaths of Six Northeastern University Students Were No Accident
作者：钟然
编辑：罗志飞 责任编辑：鲁慧文 翻译：鲁慧文
2025年7月23日，六名东北大学三年级学生，在内蒙古中国黄金集团乌努格吐山铜钼矿的选矿厂“实习参观”时，站在浮选槽上方的格栅板上，连同一名年轻教师，一同坠入充满矿浆与化学药剂的浮选槽。六人全部溺亡，教师受伤。年仅二十出头的青年，在一块老化脱焊的钢板下，被吞没于这个国家对生命的系统性漠视之中。
这是一次不折不扣的工业杀人事件，是制度、资本与权力三方共谋的结果——也是对“教育”“安全”“责任”这几个词最后的羞辱。
一、他们不是“溺死”，是被制度谋杀
据官方通报，这块载着七人的钢格栅板，因焊缝“陈旧性裂纹”脱落；事故平台“未设承载标识”；实习协议中“未明确监护、限员和应急流程”。一句“意外”，试图将人祸归于天命。
但这是怎样的“意外”？出事企业于今年2月份刚“局部更换”的格栅板，为什么没有做全覆盖无损检测？浮选槽是选矿车间中已知的高危区域，学生为何被带上工作平台？7个人站在3米长钢板上，没有限制、没有监护、没有防护绳索——这不是意外，这是谋杀，是用最低标准压榨教育资源的后果！
而且，这不是一个人的失误，而是一个系统的共谋：教育部沉默、企业宣传“零事故”、学校卸责、政府推诿，一整套官方语言正在努力“消音”这场青年死亡的震响。
二、东北大学：从“重点高校”到“人才输出车间”
东北大学，是教育部直属“双一流”高校，是曾为中国提供过无数工程人才的老牌学府。但它今天的角色，是资本与权力共谋的“人力外包商”。
“黄金班”“联合培养”“实地教学”——美其名曰“产教融合”，实则是官办大学为国企巨兽输血的管道。这些年轻人不是学生，而是未经防护就被送入矿井的试验品，是挂着“教育”招牌的廉价劳工。
六名死亡学生，多数来自县乡地区，其中刘某刚刚保研，母亲以他为傲，全村以他为光。他不是来献身于矿业的，而是来用知识改变命运的。他们从寒门走入大学，却从格栅板坠入泥浆——这是当下“精致教育”最残酷的终点。
三、事故发生前吹“零事故”，发生后赔“工伤”？
事发地 禁止入内
车间主任在隔壁相似厂房还原事故经过，当时讲解位置与学生所站位置大致在这里
事故发生五个月前，中国黄金内蒙古公司还在宣称“零事故目标完成”；事故发生两天后，涉事平台的现场被拉起警戒线，禁止入内。这个国有企业巨兽，公开吹嘘“安全技改”，暗地却让带病钢板承载七人生命。
选矿厂的浮选槽，充满泡沫、泥浆、化学药剂，是《危险化学品目录》所列的剧毒操作区域，稍有不慎即可能灼伤、中毒、窒息。而中国黄金集团却让未经培训的学生上平台“观摩学习”，甚至没有设定人数限制。这是学习？还是屠宰？
事故发生后，企业迅速“停产整顿”“协商赔偿”，并强调“按《工伤保险条例》赔偿”。请问：他们是你们的工人吗？是你们签了合同的劳工吗？还是在你们剥削体制下的“准牺牲品”？这是中国式事故处理中最恶臭、最惯常的一幕：一边拿着带血的支票谈“抚恤”，一边对外宣传“正在调查”“依法处置”，最终换来一份“完满解决”的新闻稿——而失去孩子的家庭，从此要在沉默与屈辱中度过余生。赔偿不是正义，赔偿不是真相，赔偿不是忏悔，赔偿只是中国官僚体系对责任的逃避方式，是用金钱埋葬公共问责的黑色手段。
四、学校、企业、政府：三位一体的责任共犯
不要把责任推给一块钢板。这不是一块钢板塌了，是整个体制坍塌了。
东北大学把学生送进矿井，却连实习协议中最基本的安全条款都不落实；企业对事故平台进行局部维修，却不做全面检测；监管部门竟然连事发地是否合规都事后才调查；而教育部、国务院、矿山安全监察局，没有一句公开的痛悼，没有一次正面的发声。
这是什么国家？在这片土地上，连教育与生命都可以作为行政绩效与利润目标的附属指标。一个家长将孩子送进大学，是想让他读书，不是想让他下矿。一个教师带学生实习，是为了教学，不是集体赴死。
他们是矿井下的“应试祭品”，是制度浮选中的沉渣，是GDP与“项目合作”中的牺牲者。真正该坠入泥浆的，是那群高坐办公室、签署协议却对死伤无动于衷的人。
五、我们要问责的，不止是一块焊缝
我们要问责的，是为什么学生实习变成了“无保护劳工”？我们要问责的，是谁批准这些协议、谁安排这些参观、谁在掩盖事故真相？我们要问责的，是中国高校为何普遍沦为企业的人力资源外包基地？我们要问责的，是这政权对年轻人生命到底还有没有一丝敬意？
六名大学生的遗体还未入土，体制已迫不及待地略过他们往后看了。然而我们不能，我们必须记住他们的名字，必须逼问这个国家：你还能不能保护你优秀的青年？
我们不是要一纸赔偿，我们要有人负责，我们要制度改变。否则，浮选槽里还会有下一个刘某，下一个你、我的孩子。
Systemic Flotation, Youth Submerged
— The Deaths of Six Northeastern University Students Were No Accident
By Zhong Ran Date: July 23, 2025
Editor: Luo Zhifei | Translator: Lu Huiwen
On July 23, 2025, six third-year students from Northeastern University, along with a young instructor, fell into a flotation tank filled with slurry and chemical agents at the Unugtu Mountain Copper-Molybdenum Ore Concentration Plant, owned by China National Gold Group in Inner Mongolia. The students—all in their early twenties—were standing on a metal grate above the tank during what was described as an “internship tour.” All six students drowned; the instructor was injured. Beneath an aging, fractured steel panel, they were swallowed by this nation’s systemic disregard for human life.
This was not a “tragic accident.”
It was a premeditated industrial killing, a product of collusion among system, capital, and power—and the final insult to the words “education,” “safety,” and “responsibility.”
I. They Didn’t Drown—They Were Murdered by the System
According to the official report, the steel grate holding seven people collapsed due to “pre-existing cracks in the welds.” The accident platform “lacked load-bearing warnings.” The internship agreement “did not clarify supervision, personnel limits, or emergency procedures.”
One word—“accident”—tries to dismiss a man-made disaster as fate.
But what kind of “accident” was this?
The company had partially replaced the grates in February 2025. Why wasn’t comprehensive nondestructive testing conducted?
Flotation tanks are well-known high-risk zones in ore processing. Why were students brought onto the platform at all? Seven people stood on a three-meter steel panel—without restrictions, without supervision, without safety ropes.
This is not an accident—this is murder. This is the outcome of squeezing educational resources to the lowest cost.
And this wasn’t an individual error. It was systemic collusion:
The Ministry of Education remained silent.
The company boasted of “zero accidents.”
The university dodged responsibility.
The local government passed the buck.
An entire arsenal of official jargon is working overtime to silence the echo of these young deaths.
II. Northeastern University: From “Elite School” to Talent Pipeline for Industry
Northeastern University is a “Double First-Class” institution under the Ministry of Education—once a proud supplier of top engineering talent in China. Today, it acts as a human resources outsourcing contractor for state-owned industrial giants.
“Golden Class,” “joint training,” “on-site instruction”—these are all fancy terms for state-run universities feeding fresh blood to state-owned beasts.
These young people were not students, but unprotected test subjects thrown into the mines—cheap labor under the guise of “education.”
Most of the six students came from rural or county-level backgrounds. One of them, Liu, had just been admitted to a graduate program. His mother was proud of him; his entire village saw him as their pride.
He didn’t go to the mine to sacrifice his life—he went to change his destiny through knowledge.
They came from humble families to attend university, only to fall from a steel plate into a slurry pit.
This is the cruelest end of China’s so-called “elite education.”
III. Before the Incident: “Zero Accidents” — Afterward: “Workplace Injury Compensation”?
Just five months before the incident, China National Gold Inner Mongolia boasted about achieving its “zero-accident target.”
Two days after the deaths, a yellow tape sealed off the accident site. The same state-owned industrial giant that boasted about “safety reforms” had placed the lives of seven people on a faulty steel panel.
The flotation tanks are filled with foam, slurry, and chemical reagents. Listed in the Catalogue of Hazardous Chemicals, these are deadly operational zones where even minor errors can cause burns, poisoning, or suffocation.
And yet, China National Gold Group allowed untrained students to “observe and learn” on these platforms—without any cap on participant numbers.
Is this education—or execution?
After the incident, the company quickly halted production, offered “compensation negotiations,” and insisted on settling “under the Work-Related Injury Insurance Regulations.”
We ask:
Were these students your employees?
Were they on your payroll?
Or were they quasi-sacrificial victims under your exploitative system?
This is the darkest, most common routine in China’s accident management:
One hand hands over a blood-stained check, while the other hand feeds the media statements like “under investigation” and “being handled legally.”
In the end, a sanitized press release is published declaring “the issue resolved”—while the bereaved families must spend the rest of their lives in silence and humiliation.
Compensation is not justice.
Compensation is not truth.
Compensation is not remorse.
It is merely a way for China’s bureaucratic system to evade responsibility—a black-market tool to bury public accountability with money.
IV. University, Enterprise, and Government: A Trinity of Complicity
Don’t blame the steel plate.
It wasn’t just a piece of metal that collapsed—it was the entire system.
Northeastern University sent its students into the mines but failed to enforce even the most basic safety clauses in the internship agreement.
The company conducted only partial maintenance on a hazardous platform.
Regulators only began checking for compliance after the deaths occurred.
And the Ministry of Education, State Council, and Mine Safety Administration have not issued a single statement of mourning—no voice, no apology.
What kind of country is this—where even education and life itself become mere metrics for administrative performance and profit?
Parents send their children to college to learn—not to die in a mine.
Teachers take students on internships to educate them—not to lead them to collective death.
They are the sacrificial victims of exam-based survival, the sediment sinking in this nation’s systemic flotation tank, the offerings to GDP figures and “industry-university partnerships.”
The ones who truly deserve to drown in the slurry are those sitting in offices, signing agreements with no concern for the lives buried beneath their pens.
V. We Demand Accountability—Beyond a Broken Weld
We demand answers:
• Why has “student internship” turned into unprotected labor?
• Who approved these agreements, who organized these visits, and who is covering up the truth?
• Why have Chinese universities become HR outsourcing bases for corporations?
• Does this regime hold even a shred of respect for the lives of its young people?
The six students’ bodies haven’t even been buried, and yet the system has already moved on.
But we cannot move on.
We must remember their names.
We must demand answers from this country:
Can you still protect your best and brightest?
We don’t want a piece of paper called “compensation.”
We want accountability.
We want systemic change.
Otherwise, the next person to fall into that flotation tank could be another Liu—
Or your child.
Or mine.
