China censors anniversary of high-speed rail crash

Searches for “Wenzhou” or “high-speed train” were censored
from the Chinese
internet.

The Communist party is preparing for a once-in-a-decade handover to a new set
of leaders in the Autumn and has emphasised the need for stability. The
crash was the first fatal accident on China’s much-vaunted high-speed
network, although speed was not a factor: the trains collided at less than
62mph because of a signalling failure.

“For the past year, I have felt a bit numb,” said Henry Cao, 33, an
American citizen and father of four who lost both his parents in the crash
and was himself severely injured. “I have lost my ambition to try to
make it and life is meaningless. I have a responsibility to my family, but I
understand now how death is part of life.”

Mr Cao, who lives in Colorado, plans to return to China with his brother Leo
to arrange the shipment of his parents’ bodies next month. However, the
family remains in dispute with the Railways ministry over the compensation
they are due and over who will pay for Mr Cao’s ongoing medical care in the
United States.

“My brother lost his spleen and kidney and had broken ribs and a
fractured ankle. He is lucky to be alive. They were in the second train, the
one that rammed the first train from behind, and they were in the second
carriage. My father died quickly after hitting his head.

My mother’s chest was crushed but it took them two hours to get her to the
hospital,” said Leo Cao.

“The ministry of Railways was very vague in the beginning and continues
to be vague,” he said, adding that US diplomats have also failed to
advance their case.

The Global Times, the only state-run newspaper to mention the anniversary,
reported that Xiang Weiyi, a three-year-old orphaned girl who was
miraculously pulled from the wreckage after 21 hours, and after the search
for survivors was prematurely called off, had not been accepted into
kindergarten because she remains partly disabled.

Another family told the newspaper that “after the memorial service, the
Railway ministry officials fled and have never contacted us ever since. The
investigation result was delayed, and the complete name list of all the
passengers on the trains has still never been released.”

Additional reporting by Valentina Luo

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