Beijing silent on fireworks blast

A 20-year-old woman is rescued after the Jianxi blast. Official news agency Xinhua says the woman survived.

By Willy Wo-Lap Lam
Senior China Analyst

(CNN) -- Chinese officials have kept quiet over the question of responsibility for the weekend fireworks factory blast in Jiangxi province.

While the death toll of 34 is expected to go beyond 50, local cadres have imposed a news blackout and even reporters from provincial media have been discouraged from talking to officials or victims' relatives.

Officials in Wanzai County, where the factory is located, said the families of victims, mostly peasant workers, would be given compensation of between 30,000 to 33,000 yuan (around 4,000 dollars) per person.

However, the Wanzai Funeral Home has been given orders to bar journalists and even some of the relatives of the dead.

State media have quoted officials as saying "human error" was involved but no details were given.

Few details have also been divulged concerning a blast in a coal mine in the same province last Sunday, which killed nine and hurt more than 60.

Commentators in influential national media have called on Beijing to punish cadres who might be guilty of negligence or oversight.

Asked Li Hongbing of the People's Daily website: "Can they [cadres] avoid the issue of responsibility after evading press questions?"

However, neither the central nor Jiangxi government has discussed the question of responsibility.

School fire

Earlier this year, the Communist party Secretary of Jiangxi, Shu Shengyou, was sacked after a fireworks-related explosion in a primary school in Fanglin Village not far from Wanzai.

Close to 50 villagers, mostly pupils forced to make fireworks to supplement the school's income, were killed.

However, the replacement for Shu, Meng Jianzhu, is regarded a rising star in Chinese politics and it is unlikely he will be penalized.

This is despite the statement by Premier Zhu Rongji, who had ordered an investigation into the Fanglin incident, that regional leaders had to take political responsibility for major accidents in mines or factories.

In a national conference on industrial safety held on Monday, Vice-Premier Wu Bangguo said the number of factory and mine accidents last year that involved deaths of ten people or more had declined by 22%.

Wu said, however that the "industry safety front is still very severe," adding that standards particularly in non-state work units remained dissatisfactory.

The senior official, however, did not make comments on who had to take direct or political responsibilities over the recent spate of fireworks and coal mine accidents in Jiangxi and several other provinces.