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Authorities are struggling to contain the backlash on microblogs over the handling of the crash
Agence France-Presse in Beijing
01 August 2011
A week after the high-speed rail crash sparked widespread criticism that the mainland had put its development before public safety, authorities are struggling to contain the anti-government backlash.
The crash was the most discussed issue yesterday on Sina’s popular microblogging site Weibo, where internet users have unleashed a week-long torrent of vitriol, questioning the safety of the fast-expanding train network.
Despite signs the government may be clamping down on traditional media, internet users were still furious over the handling of the accident on July 23 near the eastern city of Wenzhou , in which at least 40 people died and 190 were injured after one bullet train rammed into the back of another that had stalled.
Beijing “doesn’t have the courage to face up to its mistakes, doesn’t have the confidence to accept being called into question, and doesn’t know how to live harmoniously with its people,” one post said.
The backlash prompted Premier Wen Jiabao - who often travels to the scene of a disaster as soon as it happens - to take a trip to Wenzhou on Thursday, where he promised to punish those responsible for the crash.
In a highly unusual admission by a senior leader, Wen said he could not come earlier due to illness, comments that analysts said suggested top leaders had disagreed over how to handle the disaster.
Zhu Dake, a professor at Shanghai’s Tongji University, said despite the public backlash the government was unlikely to change the way it dealt with similar issues in the future.
“I think Premier Wen is a lonely voice [within the Communist Party] ... I have absolutely no hope that the government will change its attitude or methods in dealing with big accidents,” Zhu said.
Beijing can also count on an army of web censors, who enforce what is known as “The Great Firewall of China” to damp down dissent among the world’s largest online population. Crackdowns have seen the government block online discussion following this year’s popular uprisings in the Arab world and to crush rumours in early July that former president Jiang Zemin had died.
A railway official said on Thursday that design flaws in signal equipment and human error caused the crash.
The crash has caused much public anger and has come to be seen as emblematic of the problems with the mainland’s pace of development over the past three decades, sometimes achieved at the expense of public safety.