Scared to Death?--China's Salt Crisis

  "Stop the rumors of salt
         stop transferring rumors, stop believing rumors, start from me!"

A heated discussion about salt purchases is spreading on Weibo. A few days ago, the Japanese nuclear power plant exploded and released a large amount of nuclear radiation; the radiation scared a lot of Chinese citizens. After this, a rumor spread claiming that iodized salt could prevent the effects of nuclear radiation, so more and more Chinese people rushed to purchase salt which eventually led to a serious shortage of salt in the market. Fortunately, the rumors had been quickly detected by the government, and some local Chinese officials announced that the Japanese nuclear radiation would not affect people's health. But today there are still many Chinese citizens anxious to buy salt and store it at home.
A netizen on Weibo talked about his experience in Japan after the nuclear explosion. He said he had visited several super markets and wanted to see if the salt had been sold out. To his surprise, the owner of the market told him that there were not many Japanese buying salt, but most of his salt was sold to Chinese who lived there. A question arose in Weibo: are the Chinese too scared of death? Even the Japanese are not that scared! Isn't it exaggerated? Some experts tried to explain such phenomenon in China. They said that many Chinese are scared of the nuclear radiation because they are not educated enough, so they tend to believe the rumors easily. Many peddlers are taking advantage of people's worry about the radiation and disseminating rumors so that they can earn a lot from the salt industry. China has a big population, and people are connected, so the negative feelings easily spread and influence others around them; in the end, it becomes the fear of a larger group of people. The influence is especially great in rural areas where people are less educated.
According to Sina micro-blogging, 90% of  Weibo netizens have behaved calm and remained sane to the panic purchase of salt. But the shortage of salt is still severe in China today. Due to the situation, the Corporation of National Salt Industry made an announcement through its official Weibo that the company is fully capable of protecting the steady supply of salt to all Chinese citizens.