OpinionHeavier penalties needed to deter cover-ups of accidents in China
Hu Shuli says two recent cases show up China's lax supervision of power and the distorted incentives that encourage local governments to lie
The attempted cover-up of two recent industrial accidents in Shanxi dealt yet another blow to government credibility in China.
In the first, the China Railway Tunnel Group - a supposedly "well-managed state-owned enterprise" - tried to cover up a deadly explosion at a railway tunnel project, even going so far as to move the bodies elsewhere for cremation.
In the second, the Changzhi plant of the Shanxi Tianji Coal Chemical Industry Group leaked nine tonnes of the toxic chemical aniline into a local river. The accident came to light only after the city of Handan, downstream in Hebei , raised the alarm about the quality of its drinking water.
The Changzhi government said it took the matter for a "minor incident" and did not report it to higher authorities. Many questions about the case have yet to be answered and only frontline workers have been held accountable so far.
Such cover-ups recall the painful memory of the Sars outbreak in 2003, where an official cover-up slowed down efforts to contain the contagion. The heavy price in lives lost should have awakened officials to the dangers of such malfeasance. Sadly, that is not the case. Caixin has found that, in Shanxi alone, officials tried to cover up at least four serious accidents last year. Similar cover-ups also happened in the other provinces, including Henan and Hunan .
The consequences of a cover-up can be grave, often involving a bigger loss of life and property. Take the Shanxi aniline leak. This accident was not of the same scale as the benzene spill in Songhua River or the algal bloom that plagued the polluted Lake Tai. If Shanxi officials had alerted the public to the contamination early on, fewer people would have been affected. At the very least, rumours would not have spread and public panic could have been averted.
Worse, a cover-up adds to the mistrust of government. As some commentators have noted, the consequences of a cover-up are more harmful than the accident officials were trying to cover up in the first place.