The recent accidental launch of a space rocket in China’s Henan province highlights the challenges faced by journalists in a reporting environment controlled by the state.

From the Lingua Sinica Newsletter | July 11, 2024

Just over a week ago, a space rocket owned by Chinese company Space Pioneer (天兵) accidentally launched itself during a test, plummeting back to Earth less than a minute later. Footage shot by residents of Gongyi (巩义) in Henan province showed the first stage of the Tianlong-3 (天龙三号) launch vehicle climbing into the sky before halting and then falling, erupting into flames on a hillside within sight of nearby villagers. Despite the dramatic scenes, however, Chinese media have reported that there were no casualties.

The incident takes us back to February 1996, when another Chinese rocket failure caused destruction, panic, and speculation that persists to this day. This was the Intelsat 708 telecommunications satellite, whose Long March 3B launch vehicle failed while it was being launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan. The launch vehicle veered off course immediately after liftoff and sent the rocket hurtling into a nearby village. Officially, the death toll was pinned at six people — but this came weeks later after a news blackout. This official secrecy, combined with the surprisingly low casualty number, has fueled conspiracy theories over the years that a cover-up of hundreds of deaths might have taken place. 

Footage of burned-out buildings, captured and smuggled out by foreign observers, has also added to these theories. Nearly two decades after the incident, Bruce Campbell, an American safety specialist who witnessed the crash, went public with his doubts. In an interview with Smithsonian magazine, Campbell shared his speculation that the official death toll only reflected military personnel who were caught by the blast and not the civilian population. From the article:

What Campbell and his friend did not see were human casualties. At the time they reached the residential area, hundreds of Chinese soldiers and military vehicles were flooding the area, and the Americans suspected that one of their main tasks was to remove bodies. Eyewitnesses in Xichang would later describe many flatbed trucks carrying what appeared to be covered human remains to the military base and hospitals in the town, along with dozens of ambulances.

The Space Pioneer incident on June 30 came just days before China announced revisions to its emergency response law. While the Ministry of Justice said on July 3 that the law would ensure timely and accurate reporting on emergencies, some Chinese journalists expressed concern that it would lead to even tighter restrictions on on-the-scene reporting — exactly the sort of professional journalism that might expose systemic problems like rockets dropping onto hapless villages.

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