On October 15th, Shigatse City, Tibet, announced the investigation and handling of the Cai Guo-Qiang “Ascension Dragon” fireworks show incident, determining that the behavior affected the plateau ecological environment and violated relevant provisions of the “Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Ecological Protection Law” and the “Grassland Law.” The Cai Guo-Qiang studio and the sponsor, Arc’teryx, will be held accountable for ecological environment damage compensation.
It is worth noting that the accountability of the leadership team of Gyantse County, where the fireworks show was held, can be described as a “complete sweep,” with the severity of the accountability and the breadth of the handling being relatively rare in recent years’ social hot events.
This article will no longer repeat known information, but will only share some useful information with readers and answer a few core questions that the announcement did not explicitly state:
First, why was the “Ascension Dragon” fireworks show previously approved by Gyantse County with complete procedures, but now it is deemed illegal?
Simply put, it is because Gyantse County only considered the “Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Nature Reserves.” They clearly knew that the mountain selected for the fireworks show did not belong to the core area or buffer zone of a nature reserve. In layman’s terms, it was a “wild mountain,” so they made the approval according to the standards for holding fireworks display activities in general areas.
However, they ignored the particularity of this “wild mountain,” did not consider that this mountain is located in the broader Qinghai-Tibet Plateau ecological area, under the jurisdiction of the “Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Ecological Protection Law,” and did not consider that this mountain is covered with alpine meadows in ecologically fragile areas, under the jurisdiction of the “Grassland Law.”
The Shigatse City announcement determined that the fireworks show was illegal, precisely based on the corresponding provisions of these two laws:
Within the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, it is forbidden to damage natural landscapes and grassland vegetation, and to hunt and collect wild animals and plants.
When organizing or participating in activities such as tourism and mountain outdoor sports on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, one should take away the generated garbage or dispose of it at designated locations; it is forbidden to arbitrarily dump or scatter domestic waste.
Article 46 of the “Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Ecological Protection Law”
It is forbidden to dig up plants and engage in other activities that damage grassland vegetation in deserts, semi-deserts, and grasslands that are severely degraded, desertified, salinized, karstified, and suffer from soil and water loss, as well as in grasslands in ecologically fragile areas.
Article 49 of the “Grassland Law”
The relevant leaders of Gyantse County suffered losses because they knew a little law, but not enough, not comprehensively.
Second, why did a fireworks show hold so many cadres accountable, almost a “complete sweep”?
According to the Shigatse City announcement, the problems of the Gyantse County leadership team on the surface are “irregular decisions without collective research and agreement,” “failure to implement the reporting system,” and “inadequate law enforcement supervision.” But in reality, the reason for handling so many people and handling them so severely is mainly the reasons below the surface.
First of all, it is not a major political mistake for the Party Secretary and County Magistrate of Gyantse County to make the decision. In the county, most matters are handled as long as either the Party Secretary or the County Magistrate agrees. This is the norm.
The focus is that Gyantse County originally regarded the “Ascension Dragon” fireworks show as an event to “gain international attention and prestige.” They cooperated with internationally renowned fireworks artists and were sponsored by an internationally renowned outdoor brand. For Gyantse County, which is not well-known, it was definitely an annual event. It is feared that the county leaders had already planned to write a prominent note in the year-end report when they approved it.
However, for such a good thing to gain prestige, Gyantse County did not invite the leaders of Shigatse City to participate, nor did they report to the leaders of Shigatse City for such a large-scale event. They wanted to take all the credit…
When there are good things and opportunities to gain prestige, they don’t think about presenting the credit to the city leaders. Now that things have gone wrong and their flaws have been exposed, the municipal party committee and the municipal government, as their superiors, will naturally not show mercy when handling the matter.
Then, what’s more critical is that this public opinion crisis coincided with a special time node, which is just after the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Tibet Autonomous Region. The big leaders’ speeches required adhering to ecological priority and green development. Only a month had passed, and this kind of thing happened that slapped the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau’s ecology in the face, undermining the good atmosphere of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the autonomous region and smearing Tibet. The leaders of the autonomous region were definitely very unhappy, and the leaders of Shigatse City naturally had to deal with Gyantse County severely to show that they had nothing to do with it.
Therefore, all the county leaders in Gyantse County who were involved in this matter were held accountable, one by one.
Third, can similar incidents that damage the plateau ecology and trigger public opinion crises be avoided beforehand?
Theoretically, if all departments can play their professionalism and do their jobs well, it can be avoided. But in reality, due to the “one-voice” decision-making mechanism that generally exists in the county environment, similar incidents are almost impossible to avoid.
We can understand the reasons why the tragedy is unavoidable by analyzing the cadres of Gyantse County who were held accountable one by one.
On the county party committee side, in addition to the top leader, the county party secretary, three people were also held accountable, namely, the Minister of Propaganda, Cang Mujue, the Deputy Minister of Propaganda, Li Jing, and the Secretary of the Political and Legal Committee, Sangbu.
The leaders of the propaganda department were held accountable because they did not foresee the risk of a public opinion crisis and did not adequately assess the environmental damage that the fireworks show might cause, nor were they adequately prepared. If they were a little more capable and worked a little more carefully, and asked a few self-media bloggers familiar with internet public opinion what kind of online response this would likely generate, they wouldn’t have been so passive later.
The leaders of the Political and Legal Committee were held accountable because he was in charge of the public security system, and the fireworks show in Gyantse County was held as an ordinary mass activity, and the approval unit was the Public Security Bureau. If the public security system had thought a little more during the approval process, that besides the personal safety risks, there were also natural ecological risks, and given a serious reminder to the county leaders, the result might have been different.
On the county government side, in addition to the county magistrate, the Deputy County Magistrate in charge of ecological environment, Cui Guolu, the Deputy County Magistrate in charge of culture and tourism, Huang Hongmei, the Deputy County Magistrate who also served as the Director of the Public Security Bureau, Li Jiping, and the Director of the Ecological Environment Bureau, Ci Chen Jiangcuo, and the Secretary of the Forestry and Grassland Bureau, Da Ci, were held accountable.
The Deputy County Magistrate and the Director of the Ecological Environment line were held accountable because they did not play their role in environmental protection work under their direct jurisdiction. They not only did not stop it in advance, but also made incorrect statements to the media after the public opinion crisis, saying that the activity was legal and compliant. If they had played some professional role, or consulted with some experts familiar with the plateau environment, they would have known that it was not appropriate to hold this activity.
The Deputy County Magistrate in charge of culture and tourism, Huang Hongmei, was held accountable. I guess she is most likely the first person responsible for introducing this project. In the eyes of the culture and tourism department, holding such a topical and photogenic event in Gyantse County would be a great achievement for Gyantse’s culture and tourism. However, she did not figure out that the most important tourism resource in the entire Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is actually the ecological environment. If she understood this, she could not have introduced this self-destructive project.
Finally, let’s talk about the county party secretary and the county magistrate. In a county, if an artist of Cai Guo-Qiang’s caliber comes to hold an event, it must be led and promoted by the party secretary or the county magistrate.
For projects personally led by the top two leaders of the county, whether to hold it or not, how big to hold it, and how much resources to invest, are all decided directly by the party secretary or the county magistrate. In reality, other members of the county party committee and county government leadership team only have the obligation to cooperate and almost no room to express their opinions, let alone fundamentally deny the entire project.
The public security system, the environmental protection system, the culture and tourism system, and the propaganda system will only actively demonstrate the wise decisions of the county party secretary and the county magistrate and cannot raise questions or objections.
Once the county party secretary and the county magistrate both fail to realize the risks, or realize the risks but blindly believe that the problem is not serious and can be solved, it is inevitable that a mess will be made in the end. It’s just that most of the time, if something happens in a remote county, it can’t get out of the county. If it fails, it fails, and the party secretary and the county magistrate can pretend that nothing happened.
On rare occasions, like this Cai Guo-Qiang fireworks show, because of its great reputation and being too outrageous, it has led to a public opinion crisis of universal condemnation, and the county party secretary and the county magistrate can’t handle it.
The terrifying thing about one-voice decision-making lies in this.
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