Behind the fire

More than a week after Shanghai's deadly fire, the investigation into its cause has revealed the unimaginable disorder of the construction industry in this international metropolis. Even the mayor, Han Zheng, admitted that the lack of supervision of the construction industry was one of contributing causes of the fire that claimed 56 lives.

It was good of the mayor to admit in public that he and the Shanghai Party secretary are ultimately to blame for the fire, as the messy construction sector and its supervision are at the end of the day their responsibility.

There was no public bidding for the renovation of this residential building despite the legal requirement that such a project must be contracted through public bidding. The company that received the contract was none other than the one directly attached to the district government. However, the company divided the renovation into small projects and subcontracted them to different firms. These firms in turn subcontracted their projects to even smaller construction teams.