Recently, a major tragedy occurred during the construction of the Jiaozha Yellow River Bridge on the Qinghai section of the Chuanying Railway, where a steel cable broke, resulting in significant casualties. The construction company, the state-owned China Railway Group, released a statement saying the accident “will not have a major impact on the company’s performance,” which sparked strong public backlash, criticizing their callousness. Hu Xijin, former editor-in-chief of the Chinese Communist Party’s official media Global Times, attempted to ease public anger but ended up being sarcastically mocked by netizens as being too lenient.
In the early hours of August 22, the steel cable break incident at the construction site of the Jiaozha Yellow River Bridge on the Qinghai section of the Chuanying Railway led to the death of 12 people and 4 missing.
This bridge, touted as the “world’s largest span double-track railway continuous steel truss arch bridge,” turned from a key project just days before into a scene of tragedy, raising widespread doubts in society about the construction quality and safety management of China Railway Group.
Following the accident, China Railway Group issued an official announcement in response to the incident on August 24.
The announcement indicated that the bridge construction, which was the responsibility of the China Railway Bridge Bureau Group Co., Ltd., experienced a sudden break of the sling tower at the front end during the auxiliary steel beam erection process. As of now, the accident has resulted in 12 fatalities and 4 missing individuals. The company expressed condolences to the deceased and apologized to their families.
The announcement concluded with the statement: “This accident will not have a significant impact on the company’s overall production and operation performance.”
The announcement immediately triggered a strong backlash on online platforms. Many netizens accused China Railway of having a severe bureaucratic style and displaying extreme coldness towards the victims.
“Everything they say is lip service, just compensate the families more, even though it’s all hard-earned money from the common people,” angrily commented one netizen. Another netizen sarcastically remarked, “If it were a private company, the relevant responsible persons would have been held accountable long ago.”
Some netizens bluntly stated, “They may appear indifferent and callous, but the reality is indeed cold-hearted because once capital is involved, all humanity goes out the window. When faced with such a tragic accident of responsibility, they only care about profit, that’s the essence of capitalism.”
Public opinion generally believes that while the official announcement was brief, it spent too much space describing “initiating emergency response plans immediately” and “rushing to the scene in the first place,” lacking a sincere expression of condolences and apology to the victims, appearing weak and lacking genuine human care.
As public sentiment continued to escalate, Hu Xijin, the former editor-in-chief of the Chinese Communist Party’s official media Global Times, wrote a commentary on the same day in an attempt to alleviate public pressure. He criticized China Railway for not properly handling the delicate balance between soothing the stock market and public sentiment in their announcement and pointed out the noticeable bureaucratic tone.
Hu Xijin stated that while the announcement was not lengthy, it spent a considerable amount of ink describing emergency measures, but appeared too perfunctory in expressing condolences and apologies. He believed that the statement’s ending saying “will not have a significant impact on the company’s production and operation performance” was highly inappropriate in the current public opinion environment and could easily provoke strong public dissatisfaction.
However, Hu Xijin’s commentary itself sparked new controversy. On the one hand, he acknowledged that as a publicly traded company, China Railway needs to adhere to relevant regulations and truthfully explain the extent of the accident’s impact on performance to investors to avoid significant stock price fluctuations. But he also emphasized that this announcement clearly did not strike a balance between calming the stock market and making the public feel the company’s genuine human care.
While some observers pointed out the issues he raised, they believed that fundamentally, he was still engaged in “maintaining stability” for the authorities and the company, attempting to prevent the situation from spiralling out of control.
Some netizens viewed Hu Xijin’s intervention as a typical act of “appeasement,” trying to neutralize the intensity of public sentiment and prevent the situation from escalating further. “You have something to say about everything,” netizens cynically taunted without reservation.