“As if being hit by a missile in war time” was the analogy a resident used to describe the powerful explosion that rocked Nanjing on July 28. Armed police blocked the site immediately after the explosion, and the Nanjing municipal government convened a press conference to declare that the blast was due to a combustible gas (propylene) leak that occurred in the Nanjing Fourth Plastics Plant, a facility no longer in use.
At the press conference it was said that a massive fire had broken out. Thirteen people were said to have died with 120 being injured, 14 of who were in critical condition; 4,300 households were said to be damaged.
Questions from the public quickly arose, registered in conversations and on blogs, such as why live TV coverage was banned at the site; why the location of the explosion was said to be a plastics plant by some, a liquid petroleum gas (LPG) factory by others, and a chemical plant by yet others; and why was there an air of secrecy surrounding the number killed.
‘170 People Died’
Soufun.com first reported that the explosion occurred at an LPG factory in Maigaoqiao, a suburb in the Qixia District of Nanjing, on the afternoon of July 28, and that 79 people had been killed. After that, several other Chinese media published similar reports.
The first eyewitness to report the incident was Chen Guangbiao, an entrepreneur and noted philanthropist. He told Wenzhou Net on the afternoon of July 28, “There were two bigger explosions. After the biggest one, people nearby all had tinnitus [ringing in the ears] for a short while.”
He also told Shanghai TV: “I’m not exactly sure how many people were killed, but more than 100 bodies were carried out.”
The Epoch Times managed to contact a man who accompanied his relative to the hospital. “I was an eyewitness. More than 170 people died at the scene. The hospital is full, but the government is afraid to report it. My relative was hit by glass pieces in the face. A kindhearted person drove us to Maigaoqiao Hospital. There were too many people and not enough doctors; I kept hearing doctors yell, ‘This one won’t make it, that one won’t make it.’”
A doctor disclosed that the mayor had insisted that the injured could not be reported dead until three days after being hospitalized: by then the deaths would be counted as a result of the wounds rather than the accident.
Several Nanjing residents told The Epoch Times that at least 100 people had been burned to death by the LPG explosion
These accounts differed from the official report, which claimed that only 13 were killed, and gave no mention of the explosion occurring in an old LPG factory. State media had reported that a propylene pipe was damaged during the demolition of a plastic plant, and that the leaking propylene was ignited when a privately-owned car started nearby, at 10:15 a.m.
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Western media reported the story in the same manner, often without attributing the claimed death toll to Chinese state sources.
According to an unconfirmed report by Apple Daily, a unnamed broadcast reporter said local officials had given under-the-table money to Chinese media in an effort to have them keep the number killed under 10.
When The Epoch Times called Maigaoqiao Hospital’s clinic, a lady who answered the phone but did not wish to give her name said: “We were ordered to not speak to the media, especially phone calls. The government will handle all public notices.”
Local Media Silenced
While the disaster was making headlines elsewhere, Nanjing media was largely quiet about the incident.
Soon after the explosion, live television coverage by a Jiangsu station was stopped by a propaganda official.
The conversation between the official and the reporter was however broadcast live on the Jiangsu TV station and shows the official asking the reporter, “Who let you do live broadcast?” This clip was then uploaded on the Internet and was quickly reposted all over the web. “Who let you broadcast?” suddenly became a popular phrase all over the Internet.
Staff from one of Nanjing’s most popular newspapers, Yangtse Evening Post, posted a message on its official micro-blog that was later removed: “Today, we received a lot of criticism, which was much anticipated. In fact, we originally had prepared nine pages of coverage but it turned out to be what you are seeing now. We are sad, frustrated and in pain!”
The exception to the silence among local media was Modern Express, which ran the news on its front page. Modern Express is run by the Xinhua News Agency’s Jiangsu branch; Xinhua is the official mouthpiece of the Communist Party.
On July 29, Nanjing Daily published an article claiming that the story that the explosion caused hundreds of deaths was fabricated by someone with the last name of Wang. The article accused the man of intentionally disturbing public order, reporting that he had been arrested by police.
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