Southern Metropolis Daily Criticizes Coverup of Deadly Shenzhen Fire

The September 20 fire which killed 44 and injured 88, after more than two months, has finally been blamed on no higher an authority than a local police bureau chief. This obvious corrupt coverup has aroused the indignation of Shenzhen citizens. Today--Thursday November 27--Southern Metropolis Daily published an editorial--"The Truth Behind the September 20 Fire Has Yet to Be Revealed"--protesting the coverup of the true circumstances behind the fire.

Shenzhen's procuratorate yesterday--Wednesday November 26--convened a press conference at which they announced that in the 9/20 deadly fire case seven civil servants have been indicted for dereliction of duty. The primary guilt was assigned to Shenzhen City Long'an District's Tongle police sub-station's chief Yang Zhouwu for accepting 300,000 yuan (app. US$43,000) in bribes. In recent days numerous media outlets reported that Longan District Public Security Deputy Bureau Chief Chen Xumin had received 10 million yuan (US$1.4 million) in illicit funds. But in the indictment this amount was reduced to 60,000 yuan. What is being increasingly called suspicious about these circumstances is that pursuant to high level justice officials from Beijing becoming involved in the investigation--rendering it an extremely serious case--why did the relatively low-level Shenzhen procuratorate announce the results of the investigation, and not the Shenzhen municipal government or the Beijing investigation team? In addition to the directly responsible Dance King Club grassroots officials, shouldn't some higher-level Shenzhen official bear some responsibility? Shenzhen saw two large-scale fires resulting in fatalities this year, the first on February 15 and again September 20. This at least illustrates that Shenzhen's fire prevention work is substandard.

What is clear is that this news is being intentionally downplayed by officialdom. Today's Shenzhen Special Economic Zone News published this important story on page A11, and it is not clear whether this is out of shame or an intentional coverup.

But the Southern Metropolitan Daily dared to air this dirty laundry on its front page, accompanied by an editorial that questioned whether the seven indicted officials were truly those solely responsible for the tragedy.

Knowledgeable observers lamented that this coverup meant that the investigators sent by Beijing had no ability to control the flood of corruption in Guangdong province. Just like regional officials' ability to ignore the commands of Premier Wen Jiabao regarding ailing small and medium sized enterprises, they have covered up the truth behind the September 20 fire and protected the corrupt officials responsible.

While Yang Jia's capital punishment in Shanghai was being expedited, in Shenzhen the very opposite was taking place. This illustrates how corrupt China has become.

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