Opinion | Will dumping of dead pigs make officials clean up their act?
Jiaxing and Shanghai have long turned a blind eye to dumping of carcasses, and they're unlikely to have learned their lesson
Neither Shanghai nor Jiaxing, in Zhejiang province, have apologised or punished officials since the first of more than 16,000 dead pigs started turning up in the Huangpu River and its tributaries more than two weeks ago.
Authorities in the two cities have reacted to the crisis by launching a campaign to retrieve carcasses from waterways, step up the "non-hazardous" treatment of dead pigs, educate breeders and intensify water monitoring.
Jiaxing's new party secretary, Lu Jun, told the this week that "various levels of authorities should adopt a firm attitude and effective measures to achieve remarkable progress to reply to society's concerns". He also pledged no dead pigs would be found in rivers.
But dereliction of duty has not been mentioned in any official statements from the two cities since the dumping was exposed this month.
The public cannot help but wonder whether the authorities previously did anything to prevent this practice.
