Protesters entered the Kherlen Tohoi XXVIII exploration block on Friday, 14 August, and tried to stop work by Mongolia Foison Energy, per Mongolian media reports assembled by the Hong Kong paper. They streamed the raid live. Footage circulating on social media showed two women dumping the belongings of Chinese workers onto the ground, and local authorities say two Mongolian citizens have been detained.
The apology enters the record through the embassy's account of the meeting.
The diplomatic layer moved on Tuesday. Charge d'affaires Cao Li raised what the embassy called "serious concern" with Buriad Dashpurev, state secretary of the Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources, and pressed for measures to protect Chinese companies and their employees.
The apology enters the record through the embassy's account of the meeting. In that account Dashpurev apologised, said Mongolia would not tolerate interference in the lawful operations of Chinese companies, called the raid damaging to the country's national interests and economic security, and confirmed that police had opened an investigation and detained those involved. Mongolia's ikon.mn carried the story on Thursday as a relay of the Hong Kong paper.
The week gives the incident its weight. On Wednesday the cabinet assigned Internal Troops to guard the site, water line and pipeline of the country's unfinished oil refinery, a separate project with separate financing. Two facts, one pattern: Ulaanbaatar is spending state force and state apologies to keep foreign-backed energy projects working.