CNN: Premier Li, my question pertains to the missing airplane of Malaysia Airlines. First of all, our sympathy goes to the families of the passengers and crew members of MH370. It’s day 6 now and there is confusion and frustration. What’s your reaction to the current situation? What is China doing to harness all your resources, civilian, military, satellite imaging to assist in the search and rescue? And down the road, how will this incident impact China’s attitude and policies on opening-up including inbound and outbound tourism? What measures will you take to ensure the safety of Chinese citizens in and outside China? Will you tighten up the already tight security? Thank you.

My comments:

Down the road means further down the road, as if one is walking down a country road.

As one walks on, different scenes are going to appear, round the corner of the forest or up the mountain slope.

In our example, the CNN reporter wonders what happens next, later on, that is, after the dust has settled – though it perhaps never will for the grieving families.

In other words, in the aftermath of the MH370 tragedy, what’s going to happen? Will Chinese tourists continue to travel abroad in throngs? To Malaysia or, indeed, get on board a Malaysian airliner again, and things of that nature.

They will. But the lessons from MH370 must, somehow, be learned.

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Go to Zhang Xin's column

本文僅代表作者本人觀點，與本網立場無關。歡迎大家討論學術問題，尊重他人，禁止人身攻擊和發布一切違反國家現行法律法規的內容。

About the author:

Zhang Xin（張欣） has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.