There Is No Excuse for the Litany of Excuses Officials Hand Us

Net users have passed the time by counting Yang Dacai's watches

Putting the right spin on your words is a science. Obviously, civil servants who owe a fiduciary duty to the public have an urgent need to master this subject. And it helps to shift the blame to someone else; a child, a spouse, or a convenient foreigner will do.

Several weeks ago Yang Dacai, head of the Work Safety Department of Shaanxi Province, became notorious across China because he smiled while visiting the scene of a disastrous transport accident.