The families of the victims of the Wenzhou high-speed train accident have a difficult road to claim compensation

The families of the victims of the Wenzhou high-speed train accident have a difficult road to claim compensation. Chinese-American brothers Cao Liyu (left) and Cao Liheng are at the place where the Wenzhou high-speed rail accident occurred last year. In the accident, their parents met...

Chinese-American brothers Cao Liyu (left) and Cao Liheng were at the site of the Wenzhou high-speed rail accident last year. In the accident, their parents were killed and Cao Liheng was seriously injured

Shanghai Zao About the high-speed train rear-end accident that occurred in Wenzhou, eastern China, last summer, passenger Henry Cao only had some vague memories: the comfortable and drowsy shaking suddenly turned into a violent vibration like earth shattering, the car was dark, and he felt like he was falling from a 30-meter-high railway bridge along with the car.

He said, "We are flying like rag dolls."

The accident killed 40 passengers and injured 191 others, shaking China's confidence in its ambitious high-speed rail system. Cao Liheng, a 33-year-old Chinese-American importer in Colorado, barely survived. He lost a kidney and spleen. The head injury caused him to fall into persistent dizziness and fall asleep every one or two hours. Cao Liheng's parents immigrated to the United States in his early years and obtained American citizenship. They returned home with their son, but both of them were killed in the accident.

Over the past year, during Cao Liheng's difficult recovery, he was also exhausted by another struggle: trying to get compensation from the Ministry of Railways, a large and stubborn government agency unaccustomed to dealing with unrelenting foreigners.

After the accident, Cao Liheng returned to China for the first time this month. He and his younger brother Leo Cao returned to China this time to dispose of their parents' remains and step up negotiations with the Ministry of Railways. "They know how to bring you down," said Cao Liyu, 30. "First, they make you shout and roar, then they delay, and finally they say something vague. Now they say, 'You're lucky to get some compensation.' ”’

Their painful, politically charged experience highlights the workings of the all-powerful state ministry, which employs more than 2 million people and rivals China’s military in size and influence. For the Cao brothers, the experience was confusing. They left China as teenagers 20 years ago. "This place is no longer what I remember," Cao Liheng said weakly, his eyes flickering and feeling a little confused. "Everyone is busy making money. Life is cheap here."

The Ministry of Railways has its own judicial system, which is largely unsupervised. The Railways Ministry has long been the subject of accusations of corruption. Five months before the accident, former Railways Minister Liu Zhijun was dismissed. He is accused of taking millions of dollars in bribes and other unspecified "disciplinary" violations and is likely to go on trial next month.

Zhang Kai, the lawyer for a passenger who was sentenced to three years in prison for slapping a train conductor, said the Ministry of Railways is a "monster left over from the planned economy era" that resists reform and challenges to its authority. Zhang Kai said, "Everyone knows that the Ministry of Railways is responsible for creating maximum profits, and only it supervises itself."

A report released in December showed that government investigators blamed the Wenzhou train rear-end collision on a signal failure. Investigators say the Ministry of Railways has neglected safety management in its rush to build the world's largest high-speed rail network.

The brothers’ parents, Zao Cao Erxin and his wife Chen Zengrong, are both 56 years old. For them, the trip was an end to a life of hard work in New York sweatshops and restaurant kitchens. The couple, both with only a middle school education, left Fujian Province with their children, taught themselves English and earned enough money to buy a house in Queens. At the time of their deaths, they were administrators at La Guardia Airport.

Cao Liyu said, "They finally felt that their financial situation was relatively stable and they could take a vacation. This was their first vacation."

His father died at the scene and his mother died hours later, leaving lingering questions unanswered: Did she receive adequate medical care? Who ruthlessly stole $10,000 from the bag tied to her waist?

In Communist rhetoric, July 23 has become a "sensitive anniversary" - a day that newspaper editors and commentators should ignore. In the days following the incident, reports abounded about the botched rescue operation and attempts to bury the train cars. Afterwards, the news censorship department blocked discussions on related topics on Weibo. Last month, families of the victims were warned against holding public memorials.

But the Cao brothers paid no attention to such warnings. They have been seeking financial compensation and have become a thorn in the government's side.

They said that after a series of talks, Railway Ministry officials agreed to pay $280,000 in compensation for their parents' deaths and $85,000 in compensation for Cao Liheng's personal injuries. The Cao brothers proposed a total compensation amount of US$5 million, which they said was calculated based on the salaries that their parents and Cao Liheng could have earned after working in the United States for more than 20 years.

Their lawyers said the Railway Ministry ignored a national law that requires accident victims to determine compensation amounts based on their earning capacity where they live. The Ministry of Railways determines the amount of compensation based on its own internal regulations and the general wage level in the province where the accident occurred.

"Their representatives told us there was no room for negotiation," said Tian Jie, a lawyer for the Cao brothers. "Even they admitted that they didn't know who had the final say."

Railway Ministry officials did not respond to faxes for interviews, and multiple calls last week to the ministry's political propaganda department went unanswered.

Cao Liyu said that his brother's injury was too serious and he could not continue to work. He has four young children to support and medical bills to pay, so the $85,000 in compensation won't last long. Cao Liyu said, "On the surface, my brother seems normal, but now he can only earn half of his original value."

The Ministry of Railways escorts live in the same hotel as the brothers, paying for their room and board and helping them carry their luggage, but they often call to learn about the Cao brothers' whereabouts. Negotiators have warned that speaking to reporters could cause "trouble."

This month, officials from the Ministry of Railways gathered awkwardly as two brothers wept over their parents' coffins in a morgue in Wenzhou. "If they lose us, they will be criticized," Cao Liyu said tiredly and helplessly in the interview later.

A few hours after the accident, negotiators from the Ministry of Railways rushed to various morgues and hospitals so fast that doctors had not had time to suture the wounds of the injured. They worked in groups of four or five, arranged the victims' relatives to different hotels, and ruthlessly proposed compensation plans. In the end, these plans were similar: each victim received about 140,000 US dollars in compensation.

Last year, the Cao brothers angered government officials when they refused to remove their parents' bodies from the morgue. At the time of the accident, Cao Liyu was studying for a doctorate in information science. He said that taking care of his brother's recovery took up a lot of his energy.

However, he still hopes that the delay in removing his parents' remains will persuade the Railway Ministry to compromise and allow them to hold a funeral ceremony in their hometown in Fujian. Officials rejected their request, perhaps fearing it would attract other disgruntled survivors.

But the Cao brothers still held a hasty funeral ceremony in the morgue and stopped for a while at the location of the accident. Last Wednesday, they made arrangements to send the body to New York. The funeral to be held in Queens this Saturday will attract hundreds of Fujian immigrants.

The negotiations were slow and difficult, and Cao Liheng became increasingly silent. He said that he was no longer interested in money and just wanted to go home early. He spent most of his last days in China reading biblical stories about suffering and redemption in his hotel room. He stared at the floor and said, "I hope life goes on."

But at present, his younger brother Cao Liyu is still determined to continue the fight. He said that he is ready to file a lawsuit in a Chinese court, although several lawyers have warned him that doing so is likely to be in vain. "This is not just a matter of money," Cao Liyu said, "I want justice."

This was their father's first and last vacation in China, and among the hundreds of photos found on his iPhone, one stood out. On the screen is an LCD display in the train carriage, showing off the train's traveling speed of 303 kilometers per hour. The photo is a bit blurry due to shaking.

"My father is very proud of China's progress," Cao Liyu said. "Unfortunately, it was this progress that took away the lives of my parents."

Andrew Jacobs is the Beijing correspondent of the New York Times. Mia Li contributed research to this article from Beijing.

>Translation: Xu Xin, Liu Chen