As far as "wacko reasons for this event happening" we could look to those wacky westboro religious fanatics, who might claim this is "God's punishment" for the incremental moves to give the GLBT community equal rights in the USA.
Getting to the original question posed in this thread. I am interested in how the Chinese Communist Party is evolving in the way it rules China. They've moved on from the "cult of a Great Leader" model used by Mao, and in some ways have become a "meritocracy of autocrats", albeit with imperfections.
I think the rulers of China clearly put China's interests as they perceive them, first and foremost. However they seem to be quite willing to "listen seriously" to their Scientists and Engineers, and give the advice of that community significant influence in policy decisions. Which I regard as "good", for China, and perhaps also for the " global community ".
At some cost to individual freedom, the Chinese rulers can dictate "social engineering solutions", can enforce policy implementation more effectively than a disfunctional and bitterly divisive democracy like the USA.
There's a huge Chinese " transportation project " in it's formative stages..a railway project mainly, aimed at building the capacity to transport bulk freight West from China to the Middle East and Europe. I am wondering just how they will "power those freight trains" and speculate that it won't be with diesel derived from crude oil. It might be with "bio fuel" or electricity.. and if it's electricity, then how will it be generated ? The way China generates electrical power is really interesting. They've clearly realised that burning coal innefeciently is not a viable long term method.
With it's billions of people, China has a huge stake in avoiding environmental catastrophe. The Chinese people won't reward rulers who fail to ensure their collective safety and well being.