An online poll of more than 44,000 people showed that 97 per cent were unhappy with the government's response to the disaster, the first major tragedy on its much-vaunted high-speed rail network.
Only a few hundred people supported the Communist party, while 93 per cent said the party's management was "extremely poor, showing a total disregard for human life" and a further four per cent said they were "very dissatisfied".
One popular comment circulating around the Chinese internet said: "When a country is corrupt to the point that a single lightning strike can cause a train crash [...] none of us is exempt. China today is a train travelling through a lightning storm. We are not spectators; all of us are passengers."
Chinese officials have instructed the media not to sensationalise the accident, and fresh instructions sent to reporters yesterday said: "Do not report the accident too frequently. Report moving stories about people donating blood or taxi drivers not taking fares from victims. Do not investigate the cause of the accident."
read full story by Malcom Moore www.telegraph.co.uk
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