The five children, all male and with ages ranging from four to six, were discovered by local villagers in Majiang county at 5:40 pm.

Four of the boys were dead upon being discovered, while the fifth died in the hospital, the county publicity department said.

The children come from five different families. Their parents were helping out at a wedding dinner held for one of their fellow villagers and had apparently left them unattended.

An initial investigation showed that the children died due to suffocation after straw in the abandoned house was ignited.

AP reports it was unclear why the boys decided to burn the hay:

The deaths Monday in the southwestern province of Guizhou focused attention on the welfare of children in one of China’s poorest regions.

Three months ago, five runaway boys in the same province died inside a garbage bin, where they lit a fire to stay warm on a cold, damp night in the city of Bijie. Media reports said those boys were largely unsupervised because their parents had sought work in more prosperous parts of the country, and the incident prompted nationwide soul-searching on China’s wealth gap and the effects of its economic boom on families in rural areas.

State-run China Central Television said the government gave each of the five families 22,000 yuan ($3,500) and 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of rice as consolation.

According to the South China Morning Post, the villagers used the shack to process tobacco, but it has been abandoned. The shack was poorly ventilated and had only one exit.

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Four children died at the scene in Lankao county and three died on the way to hospital, Xinhua news agency said.

One other child, aged about 10, is being treated in hospital. The cause of the fire is not yet clear.

Local residents say that a woman named as Yuan Lihai had used the house to shelter orphans and abandoned children.

It remained unclear how many children were in the house at the time.

According to AP, the fire occurred at an illegal shelter run by Yuan, who took in and cared for 18 abandoned children and young adults:

“There is a direct relationship between today’s situation and the fact that some related government departments failed to enforce supervision and loosened management on purpose,” deputy county governor Wu Changsheng said at a Saturday press conference as quoted by the news report. “They should shoulder responsibility, and that’s a loophole in our work.”

Wu also told reporters that the local government had provided some assistance to Yuan to help her care for the children.

The deaths have spotlighted China’s lack of government-run child services, which have often been left to private citizens with few resources and no legal authority. It is unclear whether Yuan would be punished.

On China’s social media, the public have shown overwhelming sympathy toward Yuan. A Saturday editorial by the official Xinhua News Agency blamed the local government’s inaction and media — who had previously praised Yuan’s actions — for the tragedy.

Although some netizens and officials have expressed sympathy for Yuan, others have accused Yuan of using the children to make money, China Daily reports:

“Yuan generally didn’t stay with the children at night. She hired a local person to take charge of their daily lives. She doesn’t earn much by selling snacks at the gate of the county hospital, so where does all the money (to run the home) come from?” asked one neighbor, who declined to be named.

Some experts and media reports claimed that the local officials have made Yuan a scapegoat because of the public outcry, which has drawn attention to both the inadequate provisions afforded to orphans and a lack of child welfare.

The basis of adoption is not simply being kind-hearted, said Zhang Zhiwei, a lawyer in Beijing, who has followed cases of adoption for more than five years. He attributed the tragedy in Lankao to the lack of a coherent policy. The government should be responsible for the care of orphans, he said.

“Before the tragedy, Yuan’s work won great approval from society. She almost wore a halo. But after the fire, everyone pointed the finger of blame at her.”

As a result of this fire, six county officials have been suspended, from another AP article:

A man from the main office of Lankao government who would only give his surname, Zhao, said Tuesday that six officials had been suspended but he gave no other details.

The deputy county governor had already said that some departments had failed in supervision and management and should shoulder responsibility.

The Global Times reports the fire has provided fuel for the debate on children’s welfare:

The Lankao orphanage fire provides food for thought. There are no accurate statistics showing how many abandoned babies are adopted each year. But we know the total must be large given that more than 80 percent of adopted children were once abandoned babies, and that children born with physical or mental disabilities are all too often given up by their parents.

These large numbers of kids deserve help from the government, private organizations and other social forces. Systematic regulation should be there to clarify responsibilities and standardize procedures.

Unfortunately, China severely lags behind in setting up systems regulating the adoption of abandoned babies and laws that guarantee and protect children’s welfare.

However, further regulation measures are missing, and in reality, many problems exist such as unqualified adoptive parents, illegal adoption procedures and poor supervision. Without clear regulation, local governments turn a blind eye to the adoption of abandoned children.

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Post tags: abandoned children, child safety, children, fire, Global Times, Henan, orphanages, orphans
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Children from Dongtang town in Renhua country were found to have “elevated” levels of lead in their blood after inhaling lead-contaminated air and eating food tainted with lead, Xinhua said.

Lead poisoning is prevalent in China and has sparked protests in the past among angry parents of children hurt by heavy metal pollution. Lead is especially damaging to children as it can impede learning and affect behaviours.

To counter widespread public anger, Beijing has promised to crack down on lead pollution. An industry body said last May China could shut three quarters of lead-acid battery plants in the next two or three years to cut local lead demand.

China is the world’s largest consumer of refined lead, with 70 percent used for making batteries.

In 2009, protesters broke into a factory that was blamed for poisoning over 600 children. In response to the recent wave of industrial contamination, deputy minister of environmental protection, Wu Xiaoqing, has said that Beijing will crack down on heavy metal pollution. China Daily adds:

“Together with eight other ministries, we will scrutinize several heavy-metal industries this year,mainly targeting illegal operations in acid lead-battery manufacturing, heavy-metal smelting and processing,” Wu told China Daily. He was attending the plenary session of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference National Committee on Saturday.

“The heavy metal pollution can accumulate in our environment and last for a long time, and it is also difficult to find out until such poisoning cases are reported,” explained Wu, who is also a CPPCC member. “So we need to strengthen the efforts.”

Over 1,000 enterprises were closed down during the past two years for illegal discharge of toxic heavy metals, according to Wu.

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A school bus taking primary students home slipped off a country road into an irrigation ditch in eastern China, killing 15 children and highlighting continuing safety problems in the country’s school transport system following a similar tragedy last month.

[...]The accident occurred Monday evening as the bus was traveling along a rural highway outside the city of Xuzhou in the province’s north. News reports said it careened off the road after swerving to avoid a pedicab. Xinhua said the driver had been detained for investigation.

[...]The crash comes amid an emotional national discussion over the poor condition of Chinese school buses and chronic underfunding of public schools, particularly in rural areas which have lagged far behind cities over the past three decades of rapid economic development.

An article in China Daily describes policy actions being drafted just prior to Monday’s crash aiming to prevent such accidents:

A day prior to the accident, the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council published draft regulations aimed at improving school bus safety, a move sparked by a nationwide outcry following the deaths of 19 children in an overcrowded, nine-seat bus.

[...] The draft proposed that school buses will have right of way in traffic under the command of police, the vehicles will be able to use bus lanes in rush hour, and private vehicles will be forbidden from overtaking a school bus picking up children.

It stipulates government will establish standards to test the quality of school buses, which now have to go through safety checks every six months.

While the Jiangsu case appears to have resulted in the most fatalities, it was not the only school bus crash to hit the news so far this week. Xinhua carries word of another devastating school bus crash that occurred yesterday:

Two students were killed, and more than 20 others were injured, including seven seriously, on Tuesday morning in a bus-truck collision in Zhumadian city of Central China’s Henan province, local government authorities said.

A bus rented by Gucheng Middle School collided with a truck at around 8:50 am Tuesday.  More than 50 students and teachers were on their way to a training campus when the bus they were on rammed into the truck, officials said.

And Shanghai Daily reports on yet another early week bus crash:

Thirty-seven pupils were injured after a school bus and a heavy truck crashed yesterday morning in Foshan City, south China’s Guangdong Province.The students were sent to hospitals for treatment and one of them was in intensive care for brain injuries[...]

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News of the donation ignited a torrent of criticism, with 500,000 comments posted by Monday to Sina Weibo, China’s most popular Twitter-like micro-blog service, run by Sina Corp. Many asked: How could China make the donation to a foreign country when Chinese schools contend with shoddy transport?

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei would not comment on the online furor but did say the buses were provided under a 2010 agreement. He said China had accepted large amounts of foreign aid — including assistance from Macedonia during a major earthquake in Sichuan in 2008 — and was now providing assistance of its own.

Zhang Ming, a politics professor at Renmin University, suggested the donation was a betrayal to the Chinese people.

“One does not have to go through exams to get qualifications (to be a traitor). When one climbs up there and becomes a big official, one will have them,” he wrote on Sina Weibo.

Overcrowding vans and buses to bring children to school in rural areas is a common phenomenon, with a lack of funding and few options for safe transportation available. See photos of children crammed into a school van from 2009.

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The tragedy prompted a swell of comments on the Internet and in the press calling for an overhaul of China’s badly managed and underserviced school transportation system. Rural areas in particular are known for unsafe transportation for children in aging, badly maintained vans and trucks.

The central and regional governments would provide funds for closer monitoring of manufacturing, renovation and allocation of school buses, Wen said at a conference on women’s and children’s affairs in Beijing, the Chinese government said on its official website.

Authorities would also work to improve management of bus systems and boost safety, Wen said.

Wen’s commented about the recent crash at National Working Conference on Women and Children where he addressed issues regarding the development of rights involving women and children. Xinhua adds:

The party and the government have always attached great importance to women’s and children’s issues, the premier said, noting that China has issued specific laws to protect women’s and children’s rights, while specific organizations have been set up to carry out government plans regarding the development of women’s and children’s rights.

He pledged to oppose gender discrimination of any kind and to work hard to ensure that women will have equal footing when participating in economic, political, cultural and social development.

Wen added that the government will continue to crack down on human trafficking and other crimes that target women and children.

See also: Death Toll Hits 20 in Gansu Bus Crash and Chinese Women and Work: The Sky’s the Limit  via CDT.

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Post tags: child safety, children, Gansu, gender equality, road accidents, road safety, Wen Jiabao
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The accident happened around 9:40 a.m. in Yulinzi township of Zhengning county, according to a statement from the bureau. The statement said five people died at the scene, including four children and their bus driver, while 15 others, their teacher included, were confirmed dead by the afternoon.

The statement said another 44 children were injured in the accident and have been hospitalized. Twelve of the injured are in a serious condition.

The truck had a license plate from the neighboring province of Shaanxi and was carrying coal, the statement said.

The bureau has blamed overloading for the accident, stating that the bus — a van with nine seats — was carrying 64 people, most of whom were children from Yulinzi’s Little Doctor Kindergarten, a privately-run kindergarten located in the rural area

The incident comes just three weeks after a school bus in Xinjiang province collided with a van, injuring 19. Netizens responded to the news from Gansu with outrage as officials scrambled to the scene to offer support, according to Reuters:

“The nursery school can’t shirk responsibility for such serious overcrowding,” said one comment on Sina’s “Weibo” microblogging site.

Another said: “Why don’t we protect children in the same way we protect our leaders?”

Chinese authorities have tried to crack down on dangerous driving but breakneck economic growth, and rapid expansion in the number of roads and drivers, creates many menaces, especially on poorly policed rural roads.

In 2010, Chinese police officially recorded 219,521 traffic accidents that led to deaths or injuries, including 65,225 fatalities, a fall of 3.7 percent on the previous year.

While some comments were aimed at the school for putting the children in danger, an AP report in USA Today highlights online criticism of the government for not giving adequate funds to rural schools:

Chinese Twitter-like microblogs exploded in rage after Wednesday’s accident, registering more than 800,000 posts within hours of the news.

Particular ire was directed at government spending. Many made comparisons to the quality of U.S. school buses, some by attaching a photo purporting to show a Hummer smashed under the rear fender of a hardly dented school bus in Indianapolis. “Look at American school buses. … Our school buses are irresponsible when it comes to children’s lives,” ran the heading attached to many posts.

“Won’t this make the government wake up?” Zhang Zhen, an editor with the popular Dahe Bao newspaper, said on Sina Corp.’s Weibo microblog service. He said the government should divert funds from public money spent on overseas travel, cars and receptions “to give middle, primary and nursery schools in poor areas more strong, decent and spacious school vehicles.”

See also previous CDT coverage of road safety in China and recent road accidents involving children, including a driver in Sichuan who ran over and killed a boy to avoid financial penalties, a child struck and killed in Shenzhen, and the tragic death of 2-year-old Yue Yue in an October hit-and-run incident in Guangdong.

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Post tags: child safety, Gansu, microblogs, road accidents, road safety, sina weibo, students safety
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In the city of Tianjin, over the course of one summer afternoon in 1870, thousands of residents, led in part by local volunteer militia known as the “Fire and Water Brigades,” stormed the French consulate and a cathedral before turning their sights on an orphanage run by a group of Catholic nuns. Before the day ended, 21 foreigners – including all 16 of the nuns – had been killed, many of them brutally stabbed, beaten, burned, or simply ripped apart by the furious crowd. Three decades of foreign aggression and unequal treaties had created a lot of anger and hostility toward foreigners, and there had been a few instances of foreigners being killed in local disputes, but never before had there been such a display of rage and violence against the foreign presence in China and it didn’t take long for the overseas press to dub the event “The Tientsin Massacre.”

What sparked such fury? Well, the short answer is that you can build concessions, sell opium, and burn a few palaces and people might be pissed off about it, but there are few quicker ways to get a man to take action and do battle than to mess with his kids.

Note the accompanying image of a ‘souvenir fan’ decorated with a picture of the burning cathedral, and compare with the made-in-China Free Libya memorabilia now available in Tripoli.

Kidnapping remains a threat to children in China today, alongside dangers such as road accidents and food contamination: see the trailer for ‘Living with Dead Hearts‘, a forthcoming documentary on child kidnapping in China by Charles Custer, who is currently raising funds for its completion.

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Post tags: child safety, child trafficking, Christianity, France, history, kidnapping, qing dynasty, riots, Tianjin
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The death of a two-and-a-half-year-old son of migrant workers at a kindergarten in the eastern Chinese city of Ningbo has sparked further concerns about the mistreatment of children in China, amid a lack of explanation for the death from the school or local authorities.

The body of Gao Chenxi was found in a store-room at the Tiantian Kindergarten run by the Zhuangshi Neighborhood Committee in Ningbo’s Zhenhai district, according to Gao Chenxi’s aunt, who asked to be identified only by her surname, Wang.

She said the temperature in the room, which received direct sunlight in the afternoon, reached 60 C at times, and that there were unexplained injuries to Gao Chenxi’s face and neck.

“We asked them at the time to explain exactly how our child died,” Wang said.

“The child’s father barely says anything all day now. His mother lies on his bed all day, crying from time to time, or saying, ‘Oh, you’ve come home, my child. Sit in that chair. Chenxi will come and sit in that chair soon.’”

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When freelance writer Wang Jian shops for toys for her 5-year-old son, she’s happy to pay extra for Legos blocks and Japanese-brand train sets.

The reason, she and other parents say: Foreign brands enjoy a reputation for higher quality – a perception reinforced by the product scares of recent months. “We pay close attention to the news about toy and food safety. If I find a problem with a certain brand, I will just stop using it for sure,” said Wang, who writes for film magazines. China may be Santa’s global workshop, but when it comes to buying playthings for their own children, Chinese families who can afford it opt for foreign-brand toys – even if they are made in China. [Full Text]

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One line in Xinhua News Agency’s initial report that same day strongly suggested that yes, perhaps school was accountable.

“According to the parents of the students who died, the school they attended was making up missed lessons on the day of the accident.”

But in an update the next day, Xinhua reversed its tune:

“A local government investigation has found that the drowning accident occurred on a day-off. The relevant school had not organized group activities.”

On Tuesday, a parent of one of the victims took issue with altered Xinhua copy in a post on the popular BBS forum Tianya. The parent went on to accuse local authorities of covering up their role in the incident. The post opens by citing Xinhua’s second report, and continues:

(...)
Read the rest of What A Difference A Xinhua Line Makes… (1,347 words)

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Post tags: child safety, educational corruption, floods
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