How To Handle A Crisis

Another blast, toxic spill, worries China

By Chris Buckley
HARBIN, China (Reuters) - Hundreds of villagers have been evacuated from their homes along a river in northeast China after an explosion at a petrochemical plant upstream dumped 100 tonnes of toxic chemicals in the water, local media said on Friday.

In the southwestern city of Chongqing, more than 6,000 people were evacuated after an explosion at another chemical plant killed one and injured three on Thursday, raising fears of benzene contamination there as well, the Southern Metropolis Daily said.

Going from house to house, environmental protection officials warned Chongqing residents not to use river water, the paper said, adding that two schools had suspended classes.

In a sign of how the first accident has jarred national nerves about widespread pollution, Premier Wen Jiabao has issued instructions demanding safe drinking water be ensured.

Note. The Premier. Not some half-assed flunky like Michael Brown. The Premier.

Note too that the Premier took action the day the damn explosion happened, and wasn't flying around the country in some goddamned plane like a coward in the middle of a shell game.

Who's to say this wasn't some terrorist attack? Two explosions in ten days sure sounds suspicious to me, but they didn't whisk Jiabao off to some bunker in the Chinese province of Cheyenne, WY.