Several weeks ago, another thread had discussed the massive fire that broke out in one of Beijing's newest hotels (the Mandarin Oriental, that was nearing completion) from careless detonation of unauthorized fireworks. A fireman was killed and several others were injured fighting that fire. Now it seems that they're finally making some arrests. In a rush? For a quick synopsis, just read the red highlighted lines.
No offense, but with China, running away can literally mean... anything. >.< But in this case, I agree it probably had a lot more to do with guilt than political persecution...
I doubt that we will ever find out. Anything that can put the PRC government into an embarrassing light is usually considered a 'state secret' and can't even be talked about. Example: the true death toll of children in last years earthquake. Considering that CCTV is an agency of the state, this 'mistake' will be buried behind tons of official 'I don't know' types of responses. <_<
I'm not sure where it stands in terms of structural integrity at this moment, so the refurbishing and engineering costs is sort of up in the air. On the other hand, if the building was damaged to the point where they had to knock it down, the political fallout would be enormous. Thus, my guess would be that the government will make sure the building is put back together, no matter the final cost. You have to also remember, the building is in a country that doesn't mind paying 40 Billion USD in order to put on a good show... IMHO, the building will be rebuilt from scratch if need be, and the (real) figures of what expenditures were needed would probably never be publicly released.
