Newsweek Covers The Harbin/Songhua River Disaster

Better late than never, Newsweek steps up to bat with a pretty thorough piece on the Songhua River chemical spill that contaminated the river that serves as the source of drinking water for the city of Harbin (population 3.8 million). In particular, the focus is on the government response, including the suppression of all news relating to the death of the environmental offical in charge who denied that the Songhua River was contaminated for nearly 2 weeks.

And the suppression was ordered from the highest levels of the Communist government.

Wang's death was conspicuously absent from domestic newspaper headlines—on orders from President Hu Jintao himself, say Chinese journalists. The press clampdown is just one gauge of the extent to which Hu's regime is scrambling to contain the damage—political, diplomatic and economic—from the chemical spill. Millions of ordinary Chinese downstream from Jilin were enraged by government dissembling and delays; Beijing also had to apologize to Russia for the 145-km-long toxic spill, which was due to reach the Siberian city of Khabarovsk this week. Meanwhile back in Jilin, Vice Mayor Wang was set up to take the fall for the ham-handed local effort to gloss over the crisis, say two Chinese sources close to officials involved. "The Jilin provincial government came to the con-clusion that Wang Wei should be held entirely responsible," says one. "He decided to commit suicide to prove he was innocent."

The current mess is a setback for Hu's efforts to beef up accountability and transparency in China. It has also revived prickly questions such as "whether or not ordinary citizens have the right to decide what levels of government to blame for neglecting official duties," says Prof. Mao Shoulong, an expert on government administration at People's University.

The death of Wang Wei—who was due to be questioned and could have incriminated other colleagues—has enhanced the perception of a cover-up. This makes it even more crucial for the regime to be seen as efficient and tough, but fair, in dispensing justice. "Anyone found guilty of dereliction of duty will be dealt with harshly," vowed Li Yizhong, China's industrial-safety czar and head of the State Council's investigatingteam. "Any move to cover up... [is in] defiance of the law."

Except that when the Chinese communists are implicated, in which case, no one will ever have a right to know...