Safety chief probed after Chinese catastrophe
Port factory didn’t have a licence to work with dangerous chemicals
CHINA said yesterday it is investigating the head of its work safety regulator who for years allowed companies to operate without a licence for dangerous chemicals, days after blasts in a port warehouse storing such material killed 114 people.
Yang Dongliang, head of the State Administration of Work Safety, is “currently undergoing investigation” for suspected violations of party discipline and the law, China’s anti-graft watchdog said in a statement on its website.
The agency, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, did not say Yang’s behaviour was connected to the explosions in the port of Tianjin, but the company which operated the chemical warehouse that blew up didn’t have a licence to work with such dangerous materials for more than a year.
Investigators have not determined the cause of the blasts, but the disaster has deepened public concern about safety regulations.
China has struggled in recent years with incidents ranging from mining disasters to factory fires, and President Xi Jinping has vowed that authorities should learn the lessons paid for with blood.
The People’s Daily, the ruling Communist Party’s official newspaper, said last week that warehouse owner Tianjin Dongjiang Port Ruihai International Logistics had operated without a licence to work with dangerous chemicals because of an administrative loophole.
Reuters could not verify that report, but the company did not have any form of certification, including a licence to handle dangerous goods, between October 2014 and June 2015, according to its records on the State Administration for Industry and Commerce website. The agency is one of many government departments that regulate companies that operate with dangerous materials.
The Xinhua news agency said the company worked with hazardous chemicals throughout that period, citing an unidentified company official.
Yang’s agency, the State Administration of Work Safety, said on its website that in 2012 he signed a directive allowing companies to function without a licence to operate dangerous chemicals as long as they had a licence governing port operations. Yang, who was vicemayor of Tianjin, a city of 15 million people, until 2012, wasn’t available for comment.
Ten people, including Ruihai head Yu Xuewei and deputy head Dong Shexuan, were detained on Thursday, the People’s Daily reported yesterday.
It hasn’t been possible to reach the company since Thursday, but one of its workers defended its operations. “This was purely an accident,” Zhang Baoyan, who said he was responsible for storing and handling, said at the scene of the blast. “The usual management is good and the systems are clear and orderly,” he added.
The explosions late last Wednesday in the world’s 10th-busiest port, in China’s industrial north-east, forced the evacuation of thousands of people after toxic chemicals were detected in the air.
More than 700 people were injured and another 70, mostly firefighters, are still missing. The blasts devastated a large industrial site and nearby residential areas.
The government has confirmed about 700 tons of the deadly chemical sodium cyanide in the ware- house blew up.
Displaced residents have vented their frustration at the lack of government transparency.