Red China's Black Eye
It's been a week of one disaster after another in China:
First there was the water pollution problem in Harbin where officials shut down the water supply to the millions in the city for four days. This followed a chemical plant explosion that dumped toxins into the Songhua River.
Then in Jiangxi Province on Saturday a 5.7 magnitude earthquake killed 16, injured 8000, and destroyed 150,000 homes (according to state news media - do you think they counted or just plucked nice big round numbers from the air?). That's pretty major damage for a relatively small quake, but then again this is China.
Today we hear that a coalmine explosion near Qitaihe in northeast China killed 69 miners. The Guardian report adds this tidbit of info:
And perhaps this has just been an unlucky week for China.
Or maybe a few reporters more than are usually in the country stayed behind after President Bush's recent Asian trip.
Or maybe, as the country becomes a bigger player in the economics of the world, we are getting better news coverage of what's happening inside. An earthquake in central China may have once been like a tree falling in an empty forest. Today all eyes are on this giant economic force and we're starting to really pay attention to every news story coming out of the country. Warts an all.
Cross-posted at On The Road To 2008.
First there was the water pollution problem in Harbin where officials shut down the water supply to the millions in the city for four days. This followed a chemical plant explosion that dumped toxins into the Songhua River.
Then in Jiangxi Province on Saturday a 5.7 magnitude earthquake killed 16, injured 8000, and destroyed 150,000 homes (according to state news media - do you think they counted or just plucked nice big round numbers from the air?). That's pretty major damage for a relatively small quake, but then again this is China.
Today we hear that a coalmine explosion near Qitaihe in northeast China killed 69 miners. The Guardian report adds this tidbit of info:
China's coalmines are the world's most dangerous. Fires, floods, cave-ins and explosions are reported almost daily, and thousands of miners are killed every year despite the government's repeated attempts to improve safety and upgrade equipment.130,000 dying in China in one year is a rate of 350 a day. Sure China is the most populous country in the world, but 350 accidental deaths a day seems like something we would have heard more about. Maybe we have and I haven't been paying attention.
Some 3,000 miners have died this year in China, while BBC News said 130,000 people died in the country in industrial accidents last year.
Eighteen miners missing since another coalmine disaster last week in north China's Hebei province were confirmed dead today, Xinhua said.
And perhaps this has just been an unlucky week for China.
Or maybe a few reporters more than are usually in the country stayed behind after President Bush's recent Asian trip.
Or maybe, as the country becomes a bigger player in the economics of the world, we are getting better news coverage of what's happening inside. An earthquake in central China may have once been like a tree falling in an empty forest. Today all eyes are on this giant economic force and we're starting to really pay attention to every news story coming out of the country. Warts an all.
Cross-posted at On The Road To 2008.
Posted at 11/29/2005 05:01:00 AM UTC
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