PR, as in public relations, is an art. Over the last few days I have been watching Wang Yongping (王勇平) addressing the Chinese press on the bullet train crash. On one hand, I feel bad for him, for he was genuinely trying to relay facts. On the other hand, I thought he really bungled on certain issues which created controversies that shouldn’t have been in the first place. For example, his ‘I believe it’ comment on the burying of D301’s head should instead simply be that was what he was told and he would find out more. It indeed turned out to be a safety and rescue consideration. Since the rescue team would have details of the circumstances, his job should have been to set expectations and get the press to wait, not speculate, until details emerged.
I put the below diagram together because I think social media is ever more important, and false information in it has to be cleaned in order to let truthful and helpful information propagate. Read more…
Roland Song has done a number of much needed translations of false rumors and fake news surrounding the Wenzhou train crash. It is a must read.
I was in particular looking into information related to the two year old girl who was found. A panelist on CCTV criticized the Ministry of Rail for declaring rescue over and the girl being found afterwards. Roland translates the first account of police captain Shao Yerong (from CCTV) on rescuing the girl. Follow above link for details.
“Flaws in railway signal system lead to fatal collision: railway authorities”
WENZHOU, July 28 (Xinhua) — Design flaws in railway signal equipment led to Saturday’s fatal high-speed train collision near Wenzhou in Zhejiang Province, the Shanghai Railway Bureau said on Thursday.
Having been struck by lightning, the signal system at Wenzhou South Railway Station failed to turn the green light to red, which caused the rear-end collision, said An Lusheng, head of the Shanghai Railway Bureau, at an investigation meeting held by the State Council in Wenzhou on Thursday.
Read more…
Ministry of Rail spokesperson Wang Yongping bows to passengers at press conference (Xinhua)
The Chinese media has been pressing for information relating to why didn’t the D301 train stop in time and instead rear-ended the D3115. In the latest press conference over the collision, Ministry of Rail spokesperson Wang Yongping (王勇平) informed the press that the ‘blackbox’ for the D301 train has been recovered and experts are investigating the cause of the crash. So far, 38 people were confirmed dead with more than 200 injured.
CCTV has also reported the repairs to the rail road is done and rail traffic has resumed.
A passenger sent the first SOS micro-blog message through Sina’s Weibo (username Yangjuan Quanyang) at 8:47pm at the time of the accident and was soon forwarded 112,000 times. Her initial message said: Read more…
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