China | Chaguan

When China hides disasters in a memory hole

A revealing attempt to forget a terrible plane crash

A person sweeps a bunch of flowers into a big, black hole which is partially obscured by a red curtain.
Illustration: Chloe Cushman

ONLY A FEW fire-blackened branches and tree stumps, half hidden by young green ferns, betray the horrors that visited this valley in southern China a little over two years ago. No shrine or memorial stone marks the place where 132 people on a domestic flight from Kunming to Guangzhou lost their lives. They died in the early afternoon of March 21st 2022 when their China Eastern Boeing 737 hit the ground in a near-vertical nosedive, travelling at close to the speed of sound.

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From the August 3rd 2024 edition

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