The New York Times writes, "Within days of the disaster, blatant violations of workplace safety have been exposed at Ruihai International Logistics, which was storing too much hazardous material too closely to residential homes and public infrastructure, including a light-rail station. A detailed report by the official Xinhua News Agency on Wednesday said the company is co-owned by a former executive of the powerful state-owned enterprise Sinochem Group and a son of a late police chief overseeing the port. The union of the two was to leverage their resources into business success, and the connections appeared to have worked in their pursuit for the license to handle hazardous material - but at the cost of safety.

"The accessibility of Hong Kong's market's to foreigners-in contrast to China's markets-make it a proxy for investing in China. That easier access makes Hong Kong vulnerable to losses amid mounting worries about the health of China's markets and economy. About half of shares listed on the Hang Seng are so-called H-shares, which represent Chinese companies listed in the city. For example, when mainland stocks were suspended from trading in the throes of China's stock turmoil-with as few as 3% of stocks available for trading at one point-some investors who wanted to pull money from the Chinese market had to sell their stocks in Hong Kong instead, said Binay Chandgothia, a portfolio manager at Principal Global Investors," The Wall Street Journal writes.

Reuters reports, "On Wednesday, the indexes had reversed sharp losses to end higher, as roughly 30 Chinese listed companies, many small caps, disclosed holdings by government-backed investors in an apparent attempt to sooth market panic following the previous session's 6 percent tumble. "Even as the government has the will to put a floor under the market, whether it has the ability to do so is in doubt," said Hou Yingmin, analyst at AJ Securities, citing adversities including an anaemic economy, capital outflows and ugly technical patterns."