Killing of innocents can't be justified

Although terrorist attacks and shootings in the West are different from the arson attack in Xiamen, they have certain things in common. For one, the perpetrators, be they Westerners or Chinese, cannot fit into wider society.

Some netizens' claim that Chinese society as a whole is a failure doesn't hold water, but our society does need to learn a lesson from the tragedy. The fire has exposed there are loopholes in the safety system of buses, which were designed to help passengers escape but failed to work during a real emergency.

In fact, in 2009, when another man set fire to a bus in Chengdu, Sichuan province, killing 27 people, there was a nationwide campaign to improve bus safety. But the campaign died down with the passage of time.

So this time, we should not allow the call to improve bus safety measures to subside until proper measures are taken to that effect. There is no reason why more innocent people should lose their lives to the maniacal act of some disgruntled social aliens.

China has achieved many an economic miracle, but the social gap in the country continues to widen. It's high time the authorities created opportunities for the underprivileged to improve their lives and provided them with free counseling to prevent them from venting their anger on innocent people. It's also important for people to lend a helping hand to those in need, so that they don't feel alienated.

More than one survey have found that many criminals feel "hopeless" and "neglected" before entering the world of crime.

And there is reason to believe that they could have been different if they had had the opportunities and received proper guidance to improve their lives.

We ordinary people should also make our own contributions. A sentence is widely quoted in the media after the bus fire: "We are all on the same bus." The meaning is clear: We need to take care of each other and help people in need to lead a better life.

The author is a writer with China Daily.

Email: zhangzhouxiang@chinadaily.com.cn.