Distorted reports and related attacks on China are "absurd and erroneous," said Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhu Bangzao when commenting Monday on reports on the March 6 explosion in a school in Jiangxi Province.
Zhu said that, after investigations, the local public security department concluded that the explosion in Fanglin Village Primary School in Wanzai County, Yichun City, in east China's Jiangxi Province, was a criminal case, leaving 41 teachers and students dead and 27 injured, adding, "We are deeply shocked and grieved."
He went on to say that, after the explosion, Chinese leaders ordered the concerned departments and local governments to exert all-out efforts to deal with the aftermath of the tragedy and carry out investigations into the cause of the explosion.
"We noticed certain irresponsible news reports even before the cause was established, and some overseas media even attacked China by carrying those untrue stories with elaboration distorting the facts," noted Zhu.
"This is against the professional ethics of journalism, and thus absurd and erroneous," concluded the spokesman.
(People's Daily 03/12/2001)
