From Truthdig: Perhaps no other country has so many positive and negative trends as the home of a quarter of the world’s population. Editor’s Note: First the Terminator, then the president – there’s no shortage of people trekking to China, filled with wonderment and doubt about the future of the world’s most populous nation and […]
Read MoreFrom The Asia Times Online: As a toxic chemical slick that originated in China’s Songhua River flows toward the border with Russia, officials of both countries are already working together to tackle the spill. The China Daily newspaper quoted sources from Heilongjiang province Environment Protection Bureau as saying that the slick was expected overnight Friday […]
Read MoreFrom a Los Angeles Times editorial: There’s something about the international spotlight that spurs Chinese officials to admit wrongdoing, raising doubts about whether they would have done anything without the glare. Last month, Beijing waited until 10 days after the incident to tell the public about a factory explosion that dumped 100 tons of benzene […]
Read MoreFrom the South China Morning Post, via Asia Media: The Jilin deputy mayor due to be questioned by investigators probing the Songhua River spill told his wife the day before he hanged himself he feared he would be jailed, a pro-Beijing newspaper in Hong Kong reported yesterday. Wang Wei, 43, was discovered dead by his […]
Read MorePity China’s propaganda-meisters. Since the truth broke that the Songhua River was accidentally spiked with a blast of benzene, the party’s Central Publicity Department (CPD), charged with the somewhat absurd task of covering up a screwed-up cover-up, have tried and failed twice. The mess has only gotten uglier. Now the spokesman who first sounded of […]
Read MoreFrom Newsweek: A 43-year-old apparatchik, Wang Wei wasn’t the type to make headlines. Just a few months ago, he’d become the city of Jilin’s deputy mayor responsible for, among other things, industrial management and work safety. But the day after a Nov. 13 benzene-plant explosion in the city killed five people and wounded dozens, Wang […]
Read MoreFrom BBC NEWS: Businessmen from the Chinese city of Harbin are planning to sue the state-owned chemical company blamed for poisoning the water supply. Water to the city was cut off last month after an explosion at the plant allowed 100 tonnes of benzene to spill into the Songhua river. The businessmen’s lawyer told the […]
Read MoreFrom the Jamestown Foundation’s China Brief: In a rare disclosure of the enormous hidden cost of China‘s rapid economic development, the Chinese government acknowledged last week that “sudden public incidents“ such as industrial accidents, social safety accidents, and natural disasters are responsible for over one million casualties and the loss of six percent of GDP […]
Read MoreFrom AP, via Forbs: A deputy mayor of Jilin who told reporters the chemical plant explosion had not led to any pollution was found dead at home Tuesday. The United States said Tuesday that it was sending experts to help China cope with a river-borne toxic spill that is approaching Russia’s Far East, while Beijing […]
Read MoreFrom Newsweek: Bungling, delay, cover-up. When such missteps follow a major disaster, officials often have to resign. We saw it unfold in the United States after the killer hurricane Katrina. Now we’re seeing heads roll in China, following the Nov. 13 chemical plant explosion that killed five people and spilled 100 tons of benzene-like carcinogens […]
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