Whatever the underlying reality behind all the news headlines about ‘panic in Harbin’ one thing is sure, there are plenty of asymmetries pending resolution between the ultra-modern and sophistocated new-technology China and the ‘informationally closed’ political system which breeds a lack of trust and the kinds of over-reaction we are now seeing. China obviously badly needs to ‘modernise’ in the ‘welcome to modernity’ sociological sense. If it doesn’t there will always be the danger of this kind of ‘chain reaction’, and clearly, in the conext of modern integrated financial markets, the consequences could turn out to be particularly unpleasant for everyone involved.

Thousands of residents of Harbin on Wednesday night jammed its railway station and booked out all available flights as a deadly 80km toxic slick made its way down the Songhua river, threatening to poison the north-eastern Chinese city’s water supplies. he slick of benzene and other toxins was leaked into the river, the city’s main source of water, after a series of explosions 10 days ago at a chemicals factory 200km upriver. A mood of distrust and paranoia was spreading through the industrial city of 9m people, sharpened by the local government’s decision to turn off water supplies for four days for fear of an environmental catastrophe.