As an observer, I note a undercurrent of cynicism re Chinese government attitudes in this thread. When I arrived on these shores 20 years ago there was a hull loss in China every three months or thereabouts, regularly topped up by the clowns in Taiwan with their free harbour cruises when arriving in Hong Kong.
Since then civil aviation in China must have grown by AT LEAST 10X (I have no data but we are in that order of numbers) but this horrible accident was the first for nearly six years (70 months). I'll let the real Pruners decide, but there should be credit where credit is due. Can this transformation be won without a good solid approach to pilot / ATC selection and training, equipment maintenance and the whole gamut of other things that turn events round from regular carnage into world class operations in terms of safety? I would hazard a guess that the root cause of this one was pressure from management to reach good numbers, and if so heads will roll. One has already, but that may be just for
PR reasons. I'd venture that the crash will be very thoroughly investigated, and lessons will be learned. Hopefully it is at least another six years before the next bad one, in which time air traffic will have grown by 50% perhaps.