An American businessman could be allowed to go free soon, after his employees held him inside a factory on the outskirts of Beijing in a pay dispute.

US Embassy officials met with Charles "Chip" Starnes and confirmed he might be close to reaching an agreement on the Chinese workers’ back pay.  He’s the co-owner of Florida-based Specialty Medical Supplies, which makes alcohol prep pads and lancing devices.

But when the company decided to move production to an even cheaper venue in India, employees demanded severance pay, and refused to allow him to leave with the production equipment until their conditions were met.

“I feel like a trapped animal,” said the Florida man who apparently didn’t want to hire higher paid Americans back home.  “I think it's inhumane what is going on right now. I have been in this area for 10 years and created a lot of jobs and I would never have thought in my wildest imagination something like this would happen.”

Many workers in China are growing uneasy about the country’s economic stagnation, and the sense that growing labor costs make the country less attractive for some foreign-owned factories.