On Aug. 31, 2015, less than a month after the tragic explosion in Tianjin, another explosion ripped through a chemical plant at Lijin, Dongying City of Shandong province. The Lijin explosion is the third explosion in the past month; the second one occurred on Aug. 22 at Zibo, Shandong, also a chemical factory. While our hearts are still shuddering for the lives perished in the Tianjin blast, while we are still mourning for the families that have lost their beloved in the catastrophe, we are confronted with yet another challenge. After the Tianjin blast, people were demanding official notifications. This time after the explosion, people were questioning the way in which the official notification was written. In one of the notifications, the administrators wrote, “The complex chemical component present at the scene complicated the rescue process. The fact that the remains of the deceased have been blown to pieces make it hard to identify the body.” The report also noted that the families of the deceased are emotionally stable. Many people found it barbaric to write “blown to pieces” in an official report. In addition, people questioned how it is possible for the families of the deceased to remain emotionally stable, especially after having read such cruel words. Some suspect that administrators were simply trying to maintain a bureaucratic tone out of the concern for the officials’ political careers. Eventually this piece of official report was deleted and later republished with the brutal words completely erased. The words may be wiped out clean, but the truth shall remain. Three explosions in less than a month really puts Chinese industrial safety regulations under the spotlight. Among the thousands of grieving cries, we hear voices calling for regulation reform, operational law reinforcements, and administration precautions. Indeed, we have reflected and learned from the disastrous accidents. However, I am left wondering if this has to be only way to discover the regulative and administrative problems facing China. Do we truly have to wait for dreadful accidents to realize the defects in the political and legal system? It is devastating enough to hear about the people killed in the blast; it is even more heartbreaking to think that these people are the price we have to pay for the lesson we learned. This article was written by Mengzhu Chen. Send an email to [email protected] to get in touch. Photo Credit: Marjorie Wang