Tsingtao worker caught urinating in an ingredients tank at Chinese beer brewery is detained – as it’s revealed he had rowed with a truck driver… who then leaked the footage online
- The video emerged on October 19 and shows a man urinating into a malt barrel
- The local government’s investigation team released a statement on Wednesday
Chinese authorities have arrested a Tsingtao Brewery employee who was caught on camera urinating into a malt barrel after an argument with a colleague who leaked the footage.
Authorities said Wednesday that the worker was arrested on Oct. 22 for intentionally damaging company property — three days after the Pingdu Beer Factory video surfaced.
The shocking video of the man, whose surname has been confirmed as Ciu, went viral on social media after its release, with comments divided between hilarity and serious concern.
The company, which also launched an investigation into the incident, said in a statement: “Our company attaches great importance to the relevant video that emerged from Tsingtao Brewery No. 3 on October 19.”
The local government investigation team issued a statement saying the man had urinated in a malt container that had just been emptied while helping to unload malt from a truck.
A man who was seen urinating in a barrel at the Tsingtao Beer Factory in Pingdu, China, has been arrested, along with the person who filmed him
An earlier statement from Tsingtao said: “Our company attaches great importance to the relevant video that emerged from Tsingtao Brewery No. 3 on October 19.”
According to this report, the worker – who was not directly employed by the factory – urinated in the tank after an argument with a truck driver.
Mr Cui then climbed into the freshly empty container before urinating into it.
These actions were captured on camera by the driver, who then published the video on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.
The incident caused major headaches for Tsingtao, with its share price on the Shanghai Stock Exchange plummeting by almost 7% before posting a net decline of 1.15% last week.
Tsingtao describes itself as the sixth largest beer producer in the world and the second largest brewery in China.
They said they had “completely sealed” the batch of malt, which was apparently contaminated.
“The company continues to strengthen its management procedures and ensure product quality,” continued their statement, published on Weibo.
Tsingtao also said they were pursuing measures to close “loopholes in the management of raw material transportation.”
These include fully enclosing trucks ‘so that there is no contact between staff and raw materials throughout the process’, and introducing an AI-powered ‘behaviour recognition monitoring system’ within the factory.