Apology but few answers as Tianjin’s mayor finally addresses media - a week after deadly blasts
City's acting party boss admits responsibility as anger mounts over official handling of accident
Tianjin's top official apologised for the city's deadly blasts as he addressed the media for the first time on Monday a week after the explosions killed at least 114 people.
Despite rising anger over the government's handling of the accident, Huang Xingguo , the acting Communist Party boss and mayor of the port city, stopped short of clearing the air on its cause and fallout.
"The accident has led to great loss of life and property. I feel very sad and guilty," he said. "As the leading official of the city, I have an unavoidable responsibility for the accident."
He also said Tianjin would relocate all warehouses for hazardous chemicals to Nangang, a petrochemical base about 25km from the city centre.
Anger over the official response to the blasts has mounted, with residents taking to the streets to demand compensation for their damaged homes and the public pressing for details on the explosions' likely impact.
However, ownership of Ruihai International Logistics, the company at the centre of the blast, was clarified yesterday, with Xinhua reporting that Dong Shexuan, who held 45 per cent of the company's shares through a friend, was the son of Tianjin Port's public security chief. Another shareholder, Yu Xuewei, held 55 per cent through his wife's cousin Li Liang.
The report said Dong and Yu had been detained. Both had made use of their ties with government agencies.
Read more: Owners of firm that ran Tianjin warehouse used connections to gain their permits
Zong Guoying, the party boss of Binhai New Area, said Ruihai did not have a licence to handle hazardous chemicals when it was first set up but it acquired one on June 23. He did not explain why the warehouse was allowed to be built less than 1km from a residential area, saying only the authorities would severely punish those responsible, irrespective of their connections.
Huang pledged to build a park and monument at the site to commemorate firefighters who died tackling the accident.
Tianjin deputy mayor He Shushan said there were about 1,300 tonnes of ammonium nitrate and potassium nitrate, about 500 tonnes of sodium and magnesium, and 700 tonnes of sodium cyanide, among other chemicals, in the warehouse when the explosions took place.
About 150 tonnes of toxic sodium cyanide had been collected, with the rest being burned or spilled in the blasts, He said.
But the city's environmental chief, Wen Wurui, said surrounding air and water quality remained within safe limits.
Meanwhile, a commentary in party mouthpiece urged officials to learn from the West in dealing with emergencies. "When facing emergencies with casualties and damage to property, Western countries initially rather overstate the estimated danger or harm, and put the possible number of casualties as higher, not the opposite," it said.
David Bandurski, a researcher at the University of Hong Kong's China Media Project, said that to some extent the commentary was an acknowledgment of the mishandling of information by the authorities. "The entire response … has been indefensibly poor," he said.
