Chinese officials allowed the pouring of concrete over three sinkhole survivors rather than rescuing them properly.
A horrific story surfaced over social media earlier this week that would be unthinkable here in the United States. According to the Epoch Times, three people fell into a rapidly formed sinkhole in Guangzhou, China on Dec 1, 2019 and to supposedly stop the sinkhole from growing larger, concrete was quickly poured in burying the three trapped alive.
Please check out this tweet below chronicling the event and the protests that followed afterwards.
【广州地陷埋3人】
— 自由亚洲电台 (@RFA_Chinese) December 6, 2019
【当局不救人填水泥】【家属悲痛抗议】
12月1日上午，广州市区发生路陷意外，3人被埋。陷入塌陷处的清洁车内是一对石姓父子。虽然有人被活埋，但当局仍然直接往坑中填水泥，藉口是避免塌陷区域扩大。受害人的家属连日举横幅抗议。石科伟的妻子喻妮抱着刚满月的女儿在现场哭诉。 pic.twitter.com/b1ZKFyD9Wv
The travesty of human rights violations all happened within hours. Around 9:30 A.M. in the morning, a collapsed road formed a large sinkhole over 38 meters deep. Among those immediately trapped was a father and son in a cleaning truck and an unknown party on a scooter.
The son, identified as Shui Kewei from the Hunan Province, was a new father, his daughter only one month old.
The wife of Shui Kewei received word that her husband and father-in-law were both involved in an incident just 90 minutes after the accident.
After arriving at the scene, she was given no reassurance they’d be rescued but was instead rushed to a hotel and put under house arrest. She then learned the horrific news that concrete pouring started shortly after she left around noon.
At around 3:30 P.M. Guangzhao Metro announced on Weibo (China Twitter) that the sinkhole was partially filled, but in reality the entire sinkhole was full of concrete.
In the days following this tragic event, several residents of Guangzhao have protested around the sinkhole area, calling for justice and shaming those responsible for not valuing human lives.
With just Shui, a daughter is left without a father and a wife without her husband.
We often praise China for their swift decision making but it often comes at the expense of due diligence, in this extreme ethical case, human lives.
We might find the pace of construction here in the United States filled with red tape, permitting, and overall a pain in the behind to get anything done but, there’re good reasons for the process, ensuring quality, transparency, and the very least, safety above all else.
This blunder would not happen in the United States without serious repercussions.
