Laid-off employees of the Daqing Petroleum Administration Bureau (the Daqing Oil Company Ltd) demonstrated from 1 March 2002 against the unilateral breach of their retrenchment contracts, against new charges on the assets they received and over unpaid wages, pensions and welfare. The daily protest wave was the first of the March 2002 unrest in China's northeast and was ended mainly by inducements and concessions from the enterprise and local authorities.