After the catastrophic train crash that killed dozens of people on July 23 in China’s coastal city of Wenzhou in Zhejiang Province, the authorities in Hangzhou, the capital city of Zhejiang, banned the sale of candles to keep the public from holding vigils for the victims, according to microblog postings from China.
On July 23, two bullet trains collided near China’s coastal city of Wenzhou after one of them was hit by lightning and lost power. Six train cars were derailed. Chinese authorities confirmed 39 deaths, but the actual number of casualties is rumored to be much higher.
Renowned China-based writer Zan Aizong wrote about the quiet candle ban on his microblog on Aug. 3: “Now no candles can be found in any supermarket in Hangzhou. Whose order was it? Do they dare to tell the public?”
Zan told The Epoch Times: “What you read in the microblogs is true. Why did the Central Propaganda Department try to kill the news? The Ministry of Railways tries to fabricate lies, and the government tries to avoid its responsibilities. These agencies should answer our questions.
“The candles were taken off the shelf very quickly. It shows that the government is getting more and more fragile and ineffective. This disaster happened, and people died. The name of one of the trains is ‘Harmony,’ yet they are not bringing harmony, but harm, to the Chinese people.”
The candle ban stirred up heated discussion on the web. Some web users felt that it showed the paranoid nature of the regime. Another web user said, “If they don’t allow candles, maybe we should use a torch to commemorate!”
Mr. Lin, from Fuzhou City in Fujian Province, rushed to Wenzhou to search for his cousin Chen Caifa and his two teenage nephews. They took the D301 train from Beijing to Fuzhou, one of the trains that rear-ended another bullet train. Their deaths have been confirmed.
Mr. Lin wrote on his microblog: “Even family members couldn’t buy candles to commemorate the lost souls. This is outrageous! We were already upset that the Ministry of Railways would not tell the truth about the accident. Now the people don’t even have the right to mourn. This shows the true color of the regime.”
Read the original Chinese article.
