Thanks for the reply, and as you have deigned to reply, I will now dissect it.

It's not the "scale" that is "insane" considering what has been reported:it is the sheer incompetence of the port authorities. Some of the executives of the port authority are now in custody.

I do think the scale and the subsequent coverup is insane. The CNN journalist was roughed up, imagine if a CCTV journalist was treated so shabbily in London or New York? They would be out burning the stars and stripes or the Union Jack, and calling for boycotts of everything from the West.I judge a country by how measured their response is, and their first response is to attack or blame it on the Western media. Pathetic!

In 1974 there was an industrial accident in the UK in a chemical plant at Flixborough outside Scunthorpe, north Lincolnshire that prompted a review of industrial safety practices. In that accident 28 people lost their lives. In Tianjin, so far there are 44 dead including 12 firefighters. Throughout Europe there are strict health and safety for the storage of industrial chemicals. Not the case in China it appears. Do they ever look at how other countries deal with things?

Agreed. I don't think they do. An american friend I knew worked as a Transport Consultant in Hangzhou.He did some work in Shanghai, and recommended they look at the design of other metro systems around the world as to how to improve efficiency/safety in Shanghai, the chinese side did not, and did it their own way. I think they view things as if it's Chinese, it's the best, why look elsewhere?

According to the Telegraph China is facing an onslaught of criticism, and not before time. The country has an appalling safety record including car accidents, pipeline explosions, mine explosions/cave-ins and ferry sinkings. These are man-made, caused by ignorance, incompetence and greed. Natural disasters such as the earthquake in Sichuan in 2008 would not have claimed so many lives had it not been for shoddy school buildings. Examination of the debris in the earthquake zone showed that supporting concrete columns for certain schools that should have been reinforced with 8 metal rods according to the design only had 4 rods.

It is being widely covered in China. And there is mention that rich chinese are fleeing China for a better environment, and better education. 500,000 euros worth of property and they can get residency in Spain and a Spanish (EU) passport. Who in their right mind with that kind of money would buy some shoebox shoddily built in somewhere like Beijing with lead in the water, and toxins in the air?

What is incredible is that lessons are not learned. “Dr Tony Cox, a fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and an accident investigation expert, also queried why a facility holding such large quantities of volatile chemicals had not been housed in a more isolated area. "The big issue here is the proximity between the facility and its neighbours … Not only do you have flats [apartments] with their windows being broken at least a kilometre away - which shouldn't be happening - you also have neighbouring facilities with their own workforces who could be at risk.

First thing that crossed my mind. There was a huge disaster in Maoming (Guangdong) where a petrochemical plant exploded. I talked to one resident and there was one brave worker who risking his own life, stayed behind and managed to hit the failsafe button or "killswitch". Everyone else ran away, apparently as he tells it, if this worker had not done that, the damage would have been even worse.

then there was this one in Fujian, also this year:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-32196103

Thanks again, would reply more, but need to get moving.