Another huge chemical explosion Shandong province
bbc.co.uk
bbc.co.uk
In hindsight - it was a result of spikes in food prices that followed the financial crisis.
Seeing that in the last month we had :
- Chinese stock market crash. - 1 major man made Industrial accident, and 2 other smaller ones. - Chinese export economy slowdown.
I wonder if within china there is growing discontent, most governments derive their legitimacy via some notion of socitial goal.
Oppressive Muslims countries do it in the name of religion.
Western government derive it from making their people believe that they live in a functional democracy.
And the Chinese government's legitimacy is based on economical growth.
What happens when the government is unable to meet its objectives ?
It's going to crash. China's government has a more "hands-on" approach to their economy and to their financial situation so they can hold it off for quite some time. That's why they haven't crashed yet even though people have been predicting it for some time. The problem with that, is the longer you delay the inevitable (and it is inevitable, no economy can grow forever, there has to be dips, lulls and down time), the worse you make it when it does finally crash.
And China's safety and "attention to detail" isn't helping things.
A buddy of mine was in China for 16 months teaching and doing seminars on safety regulations. He said that what he saw, "scared the living piss out of him". He was genuinely scared for his life, and he's not an easy guy to scare. Things are relatively safe in the touristy areas, but in areas not designated for tourists, he said safety regulations & protections are simply non-existent. It's like modern area industrialism with regulations from 1895. Sure, environmental protection & regulations are "on the books", but that's it. It's all lip service he said. He brought up some fairly common sense regulations during a plant visit (the toxicity of something they were working with) and the guy in charge didn't know what he was talking about. My buddy said he was horrified. Everyone who had worked with the stuff will be dead in less than 20 years because nobody was wearing any protection. He said he was watching dead people work.
After the first explosion, he told me that it's more than miracle that an event like that hadn't happened sooner and more often. He told me that from what he saw, that there should be accidents happening monthly. He said they probably are, but the PRC is keeping them hush hush.
He also told me that much of the good news coming out of China regarding their environment and green energy was almost all hogwash propaganda. He laughed when I asked about it. He said it was specifically targeting foreign investors.
He said he would quit his job if forced to go back to China.