About 500 retailers protested outside government offices in Xian yesterday, accusing a company with strong state connections of failing to honour contracts and cheating them out of millions of yuan.
The protesters, all tenants in the Docai Western Shopping Centre, demanded an official investigation into the company that owns the centre, claiming they have been swindled out of about 60 million yuan (HK$56.4 million).
They left peacefully after meeting officials who promised to look into the case. A city spokeswoman said authorities had launched an investigation, and said it would be fair.
A protester representative, Lin Jun, said that 18 months ago Xian Western Docai invited 1,300 retailers to take a lease in its new centre, with tenants required to pay between 50,000 and 300,000 yuan to promote the project.
'We did not want to [pay the money], but because the shopping centre was listed by the city government as a major development project and the company has good connections with officials, we thought our money would be safe,' Mr Lin said.
The retailers later discovered only a fraction of the money they paid was spent on promoting the centre, he said. While developers kept promising the centre would open soon, retailers were forced to pay full rent, Mr Lin said.