I gave them ... the files and soon they gave me the appraisal and took care of it.
China blast warehouse execs used connections to get safety approvals -Xinhua(Breakingnews)
Chinese state
media on Wednesday appeared to convict executives of a company whose
chemical warehouse exploded last week killing 114 people of slipshod
practices at least, saying they used connections to obtain fire safety
and environmental approvals.
Public anger against the government has surged in the northeastern port of Tianjin among residents of apartments near the blasts who believed authorities neglected to properly police the firm, Tianjin Dongjiang Port Ruihai International Logistics.
"My
connections are with police and fire. When we needed a fire inspection,
I went to meet with officials at the Tianjin port fire squad," Dong Shexuan,
34, deputy head of the company, told the official Xinhua state news
agency while he and other executives were in police custody.
"I gave them ... the files and soon they gave me the appraisal and took care of it."
Company
executives interviewed by Xinhua could not be reached for comment.
Chinese state media often airs confessions of those detained in
high-profile criminal cases before they are tried in court, a practice
that rule of law advocates say violates the rights of the accused to due
process.
Xinhua said Dong did not mention any instances of bribery.
The
explosions late last Wednesday in the world's 10th-busiest port forced
the evacuation of thousands of people after toxic chemicals were
detected in the air. At least 10 people from the company have been
detained.
China has struggled in recent years with
accidents ranging from mining disasters to factory fires, and President
Xi Jinping has vowed that authorities should learn the lessons paid for
with blood.
Apartment buildings and a railway
station were closer to the warehouse than allowed by Chinese regulations
dealing with the storage of dangerous materials, state media has
reported.
Hundreds of people who lived near the
blast site have demanded that the government arrange compensation or buy
back their damaged or destroyed property.
Dong
said company officials shopped around for approvals with different
safety evaluation firms until they got the result they desired. The
first such firm said the warehouse was too close to apartment buildings,
he said.
China said on Tuesday it was
investigating the head of its work safety regulator, who for years
allowed companies to operate without a licence for dangerous chemicals.
The
People's Daily, the ruling Communist Party's official newspaper, said
last week that Ruihai had operated without a licence to work with
dangerous chemicals because of an administrative loophole, though DSB could not verify that report.
Tianjin
mayor Huang Xingguo told reporters at a briefing that all chemical
companies would be required to relocate 25 km (15 miles) from the port
central Binhai district and that there would be "zero-tolerance" for
violations.
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