Tianjin blasts: Investigators urge punishment for five top officials
Official report into disaster blames party committees and government departments over safety failures that led to deadly warehouse blasts
In a rare move, Chinese authorities are expected to punish five ministerial-level officials for a massive blast at a Tianjin warehouse in August that claimed 165 lives, with the release on Friday of the official report into the explosion.
Eight people are still missing and another 798 were injured in the disaster. The explosion also damaged 304 buildings, 12,428 cars, and 7,533 containers, resulting in 6.87 billion yuan (HK$8.14 billion) in losses, the report by the country’s top industry safety watchdog said.
The August 12 blast in Binhai New District ignited fierce criticism over the storage of hazardous chemicals in a warehouse less than 1km from the closest residential building. Many blamed lax regulations for the huge loss of lives and property.
The blast was triggered when nitrocellulose stored at the warehouse belonging to Ruihai International Logistics overheated and self-ignited, the report said.
READ MORE: Full coverage of the Tianjin warehouse explosions
Local Communist Party committees and government departments did not strictly enforce the law or effectively monitor the storage of chemicals at the warehouse, the report said.
It suggested that five ministerial officials be given administrative punishments ranging from warnings to demotions. The officials include a deputy transport minister, a deputy director of the national customs agency, two deputy mayors of Tianjin and Binhai’s party boss.
Twenty-five officials, with agencies ranging from safety regulators, to customs and urban planning departments, had been detained or arrested, it said. Another two dozen from the logistics company and safety assessment agencies would face criminal charges.
In previous major safety incidents, few ministerial officials were punished or indicted. Administrative punishments were handed to 11 cadres after poor safety preparations led to the deaths of 36 people in the Shanghai New Year’s Eve stampede in 2014.
READ MORE: Tianjin warehouse blasts: Evidence of corruption, says Chinese premier as he vows nobody will be exempt from punishment
Another fire at a residential building in Shanghai in 2010, which killed 58 people, resulted in charges against 26 people, none of whom were regulators. The report into that incident concluded the fire was caused by a construction company’s violation of safety rules, despite widespread public opinion that regulators should also be blamed.
The Tianjin transport commission approved the storage of hazardous chemicals before Ruihai passed safety and environment assessments, the report said. Several safety assessors, colluded with the company, cooking up safety reports and “deliberately concealed safety problems”, it said.
The explosion polluted the air, water and soil, the report said, contradicting to the official line shortly after the disaster. Within 13 days, airborne pollutants from the blast had exceeded emission standards as far as 5km from the explosion site.
Some pollutants were five times higher than maximum limits. The level of pollutants returned to normal as late as early September, almost one month after the blast, it said. The pollutants include highly toxic hydrogen cyanide.
