A Slick of Lies (Washington Post)

Washington Post
Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Editorial
A Slick of Lies

ON NOV. 13, A HUGE explosion rocked a petrochemical plant in Jilin, China, northeast of Beijing, killing five workers and releasing about 100 tons of highly toxic chemicals into the nearby Songhua River. A dangerous 50-mile-long slick began floating downriver toward major population centers, including Harbin -- a metropolitan area of 8 million -- and the Russian city of Khabarovsk. Rather than acting to contain the country's latest environmental disaster, Chinese authorities offered a demonstration of why their political system poses a menace to global health.

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