Chinese Newspaper Breaks Censorship with Letter to Train Crash Survivor Yiyi

Since the high-speed train crash in Wenzhou on July 23rd, the Chinese regime’s propaganda department has imposed tough reporting restrictions on the media. The regime is ordering media organizations to report only positive and “touching stories” about the incident.

Yet some media organizations are daring not to be censored.

One is The Economic Observer. The newspaper published an editorial over the weekend titled “The 7/23 Tragedy: Yiyi, Wait Until You Grow up.”

The editorial is written as a letter to Yiyi, a young girl who was rescued from the train wreck, allegedly after the search for survivors had officially been called off by authorities.

The letter is highly critical of how the authorities handled the incident.

我们该怎样告诉你，当他们宣布废墟中已经没有生命迹象，开始清理现场的时候，你仍然在被挤压的黑暗空间里挣扎

"How should we tell you, as they declared that there were no further signs of life inside the wreckage, and started to clean up the scene of the accident, you however, were still struggling, trapped inside a dark carriage."

伊伊，总有一天你会再次经过这片土地，当列车的鸣号声又一次惊动这沉寂的大地，我们犹豫要不要告诉你，在悲剧后面的所有虚伪、傲慢、草率和粗暴。

"Yiyi, there will finally be a day when you again pass by this place, as the sound’s of trains again disturb this quiet land, we hesitate to tell you of the hypocrisy, arrogance, neglect and cruelty behind this tragedy."

The letter goes on to imply that it is the Chinese regime’s push for rapid growth at the expense of the people that has led to tragedies such as the Wenzhou crash.

这个国家创造了一个又一个经济奇迹，宣称这一切都是为了百姓福祉的人，却不肯慢下来，倾听那些鲜活生命的诉说，体验平常巷陌的疾苦；他们一路拉响的汽笛声中充满了虚饰的言语和口号，却从来没有谁能保障，我们不会成为速度的殉难者。

"This country has been creating one economic miracle after another and claims that everything is all for the benefit of the common people, but they are not willing to slow down, and heed the complaints of the people and experience the pain and difficulties of ordinary society. The whistle of non-stop progress fills their empty words and slogans, but there has never been anyone to guarantee we don’t become the victims of speed."

The editorial is the latest in a string of breaches of the propaganda department’s reporting restrictions on Chinese media. It has since been removed from the Economic Observer’s website.

Yiyi is still in a hospital recovering from the crash.