Tragedy Covered Up: Two Office Buildings Burned in Tianjin

Hundreds of people might be killed in this huge accidental fire in Tianjin, the third biggest city in China. Surprisingly, the tragedy has been completely covered up.

In the afternoon of March 4^th, two 20-30 stories high office buildings burned up very quickly. Boxun received the report a few hours after the accident, saying that very few escaped as the fire spread too fast. Boxun received the second report on March 5^th.

Boxun released the reports on March 7^th, issueing some doubts as there was no mention anywhere, not even on the Internet, of an incident of such scale. Today, one of Boxun’s reporters found a video that confirms the original report.

Chinese officials are very powerful in censoring this kind of information. During this period, China has its annual Two Meetings, and this year it is even more important as it will announce China’s new leaders. Obviously, this kind of accident can create problems in getting promotions for local officials.

Tianjin had another fire accident in the summer of 2012. People say that over 300 were killed, but the official number was 10 times lower.