BEIJING (Caixin Online) — The attempted cover-up of two recent industrial accidents in Shanxi Province has dealt yet another blow to government credibility in China.
In the first, the China Railway Tunnel Group — a supposedly “well-managed state-owned enterprise” — tried to cover up a deadly explosion at a construction project, even going to extent of moving the bodies elsewhere for cremation.
In the second, the Changzhi city plant of the Shanxi Tianji Coal Chemical Industry Group leaked nine tons of the toxic chemical aniline into a river. The accident came to light only after the city of Handan, downstream in Hebei, raised the alarm about the quality of its drinking water.
The Changzhi government said it had assumed the matter was a “minor incident,” and thus didn’t report it to higher authorities. Many questions about the case have yet to be answered and only frontline workers have been held accountable so far.
Such cover-ups recall the painful memory of SARS in 2003, where an official cover-up slowed efforts to contain the outbreak. The heavy price in lives lost should have awakened officials to the dangers of such malfeasance.
Sadly, that isn’t the case. Caixin has found that, in Shanxi alone, officials tried to cover up at least four serious accidents last year. Similar cover-ups also happened in the other provinces, including Henan and Hunan.
The consequences of a cover-up can be grave, often involving a bigger loss of life and property. Take the Shanxi aniline leak. This accident wasn’ of the same scale as the benzene spill in Songhua River or the algae bloom that plagued the polluted Lake Tai.
If Shanxi officials had alerted the public to the contamination early on, fewer people would have been affected. At the very least, rumors wouldn’t have spread and public panic could have been averted.
Worse, a cover-up adds to the mistrust of government. As some commentators have pointed out, the consequences of a cover-up are in fact more harmful than the accident officials were trying to hide in the first place.
The central government in fact demands the timely reporting of accidents. In 2007, the State Council set out the rules on the reporting and investigation of work accidents, and no fewer than six agencies — including those in charge of state inspection, public security and work safety — jointly issued a notice urging local governments to “step up their efforts to investigate any accident cover-up and punish those responsible according to law.”
Why, then, do officials still seek to delay reporting on work accidents, or omit, misrepresent or even lie about the facts? Why, in some parts of China, has this behavior become the norm rather than the exception? The answer is the gain from hiding the truth far outweighs the potential punishment if one were found out.
Private companies keep quiet about workplace accidents for fear of a loss of business, preferring to pay off the victims and their families. By contrast, the managers of state-owned enterprises don’t care about the business; they worry about losing their positions.
Government officials have rather more to fear. They worry they might be blamed for lax supervision; they may have growth targets they are anxious to meet; if corruption were involved in dealings with the company in trouble, they fear being found out. All in all, hiding the truth would seem the rational choice.
These distorted incentives must change. First, we should strengthen oversight. Within the system, the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference must step up their supervision of government power; outside the system, the public can be an effective watchdog. Increasingly, the media and Internet users have played critical roles in the exposure of these cover-ups.
Second, any cover-up must be severely punished. Under new rules that took effect on Jan. 9, the judiciary and state prosecutors will seek to deal more harshly with any failure of reporting that “prolongs the damage, causes it to be more serious, or delays rescue efforts.” We can only hope this rule is strictly enforced.
After SARS, hopes were high that officials would henceforth be held accountable for their mistakes. It has been disappointing that, since then, some officials responsible for the outbreak and other debacles were able to make a comeback quietly; some were even promoted.
Clearly there’s much work to be done. A more effective system is desperately needed in a place like Shanxi, which appears plagued by workplace accidents.
China can also learn from overseas experience. For example, Britain’s 2004 Civil Contingencies Act set out the government’s responsibilities to inform and warn the citizens in an emergency, and gave citizens the right to sue in case of a cover-up.
Whether or not those involved in a cover-up can be punished by law reflects the standards of governance. China needs to build a strong monitoring and accountability system, and get the incentives right, so that the cost of covering up an accident outweighs the benefits of doing so.
In Shanxi, officials have promised a thorough investigation into the aniline spill and say they will punish whoever is found guilty of a cover-up. We hope we don’t have to wait long for action.
