Tianjin port chief sacked and faces charges after huge blasts that killed more than 160 people

China has fired the president of Tianjin Port Group and plans to prosecute him for dereliction of duty, state media said on Wednesday, almost three months after huge chemical blasts at the northern port managed by the firm killed more than 160 people.

Anger over safety standards is growing in China after three decades of swift economic growth marred by incidents from mining disasters to factory fires and President Xi Jinping has vowed that the authorities would learn the lessons paid for with blood.

Zheng Qingyue, who was chairman of the group’s listed unit, Tianjin Port Holdings, will also be removed from his positions at the city’s international trade and shipping service centres, the Tianjin government said on its website.

It was not possible to reach Zheng for comment.

The People’s Daily newspaper, the mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party, said Zheng, his assistant Li Hongfeng, and the deputy chief of the firm’s safety bureau, Zheng Shuguo, would face criminal prosecution for dereliction of duty.

Officials at Tianjin, which is the 10th busiest port in the world, and located not far from the capital, Beijing, had said Zheng was being investigated.