Not very slick

摘要

It was, insisted a top provincial official, a "white lie". But government attempts to suppress news of an 80km (50 mile) toxic chemical slick creeping along a big river in north-eastern China have unleashed a torrent of criticism by the country's normally reticent media. No cases of poisoning have yet emerged, but the dangers of a bureaucracy steeped in a culture of secretiveness and divided by internal rivalries have been glaringly exposed.