The machines are all ready to go. But the lights are out at Specialty Medical Supplies, a small American company that has been making alcohol swabs and plastic parts in Qiaozi, a sleepy town at the foothills just north of Beijing,?for?10?years,?writes Kathrin Hille in Beijing.

Production has been halted as workers are guarding Chip Starnes, their boss. Since Friday, he has been a prisoner of his staff, who accuse him of owing wages and fear he will default.

In the same paisley-patterned blue shirt he has worn since Friday, the 42-year-old looks overtired and nervous during a visit by invited media. “This is not right. If we had unfinished work on some order, I wouldn’t keep everybody at the machines until everything is done,” he says. “But they are saying I can’t leave unless we have an agreement.”