Some wailed and some staggered with grief as relatives of the 36 people killed in Shanghai’s New Year’s Eve stampede visited the disaster site for seventh-day commemorations that are a revered ritual in China.
However, each family was allowed to stay only about five minutes in the tightly managed visits on Tuesday, and Chinese government workers roughly dragged away one middle-aged woman when she began crying out emotionally.
The government’s strict arrangements reflect efforts to keep tight controls over the disaster’s aftermath, and prevent distraught relatives from coalescing into a critical group that would draw sympathy and galvanize public calls for greater accountability.
Photo: Reuters
“Such a major public safety incident can tug the heartstrings of the public, and the acts and words by victims’ relatives can make the public sentiments swing, making it a key task for authorities to control the families, limiting their contacts with each other or with the media,” said Zhao Chu (趙楚), a Shanghai-based independent commentator.
“Struck by the same tragedy, the relatives can easily resonate with each other, and it’s only natural they want to band together to take collective actions and make collective appeals to the public, and that could mean the authorities losing control over the social sentiments,” Zhao said.
The authorities’ grip over such sentiments comes at the expense of the victims’ families, Zhao said.
“The method is brusque toward the families, preventing them from resorting to law and to the media, but — in a positive way — it can indeed alleviate the shock to the public,” Zhao added.
Relatives of the people killed laid bouquets of white and yellow chrysanthemums, and bowed deeply to the statue of the city’s first Communist mayor that overlooks the 17 concrete steps on Shanghai’s famed riverfront known as the Bund where the stampede took place.
Three dozen people, including a 12-year-old boy, were trampled and asphyxiated amid a crowd of hundreds of thousands of New Year’s revelers.
Late on Tuesday night, Chinese state media reported that national authorities, as well as governments in Shanghai and Beijing, planned to tighten crowd controls during holiday events and other mass gatherings. The reports from Xinhua news agency did not specify what additional measures would be taken other than canceling events if they violated safety rules, and enforcing existing regulations on sales and promotions.
The Beijing Morning Post said yesterday that a popular lantern exhibition in Shanghai had been canceled out of concern that attendance would surpass capacity.
Accompanied by government workers on Tuesday, the families were kept in vans waiting for their turns to mourn on the seventh day after death, when the deceased person’s soul is believed to return to the earthly world after disappearing. Some relatives brought photographs and offerings of fruit.
Journalists were corralled several meters away only to observe the occasional wails from the grieving.
“Why are your media shooting there? Dare you publish what you have shot?” a young man called out to the journalists as he was led away from the mourning site. “It’s been a week. The government does not care about us. The government does not talk to us.”
A middle-aged woman in the same group broke down earlier.
“I want to die. I want to die,” she cried out. “My child just came to see the great city of Shanghai. My child did not come back.”
A close friend of one of the people killed said that the families have been kept apart and in the company of government minders so they could not conduct media interviews. She said many relatives believe their telephones are being monitored and that they have come under pressure to cooperate with authorities. She requested anonymity over fears of possible government reprisals. More family members refused to be interviewed when contacted over the phone.
Tan Ching Hin, father of a 21-year-old Malaysian victim, Tan Wei, said he was never told directly not to criticize the authorities, but he understood that to be the expectation.
“We were under constant surveillance so we could not be in touch with the outside, such as journalists,” Tan said. “We were watched every step.”
Nevertheless, he said he did not hold back at a memorial for his daughter before her body was flown back to Malaysia.
“I said this was a major incident caused by human error. It could have been prevented. It was caused by negligence on the part of the government,” Tan said.
Chinese parents have questioned whether authorities adequately notified the public of the cancelation of the popular riverfront light show, whether the city government took proper emergency measures when hundreds of thousands of people still swarmed to the Bund, and whether police and medics responded effectively following the disaster.
Tan said he was initially told to sign a death certificate and agree to absolve the government of any wrongdoing in his daughter’s death before her body would be returned to him.
“That was unacceptable,” said the father, who said he managed to retrieve his daughter’s body without agreeing to that condition. “The city government must be held accountable for this. It can never shirk its responsibility.”
Like Chinese parents, Tan recalled his anxiety when there was no word for more than 10 hours about his daughter’s fate the day after the stampede, even though authorities had confirmed at least 35 deaths.
“The doctors were extremely mean to us and they did not provide any comforting word at all,” Tan said.
He said he was upset that he could not see his daughter’s body at the hospital, but at a funeral home.
Other family members also complained that they were kept inside hospitals with no word of their loved ones’ conditions until late into the following night, when they were taken to the funeral home to identify bodies. By then, the throngs of reporters had already dissipated and relatives found themselves fuming, but with little audience.
The delay, Zhao said, was by design so that authorities could better control the situation.
“Faced with pressures from the public, authorities needed time,” he said. “They needed to edit the story. They had to control the rhythm of the development and shape its direction so they don’t lose control.”
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was