Endless Corruption In China – The Latest Example Is The Attempted Cover Up Of High Speed Rail Disaster

This is not a time for laughing but I remember laughing when I was listening to people in the U.S. say we were falling behind China as they started building high speed rail.  Well, we might benefit from a well-planned high speed rail but we aren’t falling behind anyone in innovation and invention.  And as long as this country has some modicum of democracy left in it, we never will.  I’ve been on high speed trains in Europe and Japan.  The engineering discipline around safety and preventative engineering management are the best in the world.  I would have no problem riding either one every day of my life.  I wouldn’t even begin to consider riding on a Chinese train or Chinese airliner.  Not once.  

As we have noted time and again, China is the world’s source of all things junk.  It is where western multinationals go to subvert worker safety rules, environmental rules, living wage rules and any other types of regulatory rules that are driven by a need to protect society.  And it is also a source of engineering junk.  Almost everything out of China that does not adhere to strict quality guidelines first developed in the United States and Europe one hundred years ago, is Wal-mart quality junk.   And because suppliers are not often demanded and checked to have such high engineering standards, unless the entire supply chain is managed by international firms, everything out of China is of dubious quality or safety or both.  And we can safely assume just about every public works project in China is built using similar junk all enabled by a corrupt communist culture. 

Who suffers?  The innocent people of China.   Often with their lives be it tragedies like this or cancer or other diseases caused by rampant corruption and environmental dumping of toxic waste or people exposed to unsafe chemicals in the workplace.  Who enriches themselves?  The connected party bureaucrat and the cronies tied to that culture.  That often includes cronies from companies in democratic countries. 

It’s no surprise the ministry of propaganda, is trying to shut this story down.  I think it is safe to assume when a communist party has a primary intent to control, everything out of China is of dubious quality.  That includes its propaganda.