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 Chinese authorities will start righting the ship at 8 p.m. (1200
GMT) on Thursday so rescuers could "search for the missing persons
in the shortest possible time and give maximum protection to the
dignity of the deceased", state news agency Xinhua said, citing the
transport ministry.
Earlier on Thursday, President Xi Jinping convened a special meeting
of the ruling Communist Party's Politburo Standing Committee, the
apex of power in the country, to discuss the disaster, Xinhua said.
Authorities are investigating the crew members who were rescued from
the Eastern Star, which capsized in a freak tornado on Monday night,
and were "gathering evidence", Xu Chengguang, the spokesman for the
Ministry of Transport, said.
"We will never shield mistakes and we'll absolutely not cover up
(anything)," Xu told a news conference on Wednesday night, adding a
preliminary investigation had begun.
The Politburo Standing Committee called on rescuers to "take all
possible measures" to save the injured and urged a "serious
investigation into the cause of the incident", Xinhua said.
 They also stressed that "the work of appeasing the families is very
important" and called on local authorities to "understand the
families' grief, carry out appeasement efforts and earnestly
safeguard social stability".
Only 14 survivors, including the captain and chief engineer, have
been found since the ship carrying 456 people capsized.
Police have detained the captain and chief engineer for questioning.
An initial investigation found the ship was not overloaded and had
enough life vests on board.
ANGRY RELATIVES
The announcement of the investigation came hours before dozens of
relatives broke through a police cordon in bid to reach the disaster
site.
Frustrated by the scarcity of information from local authorities,
about 50 family members hired a bus to take them from Nanjing to
Jianli county in Hubei, an eight-hour journey.
The ship had been on an 11-day voyage upstream from Nanjing, near
Shanghai, to Chongqing.
Taxi drivers in Jianli were instructed on Thursday not to take
family members to the local crematorium where the dead were
transported.
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A taxi driver showed a Reuters reporter a message on his mobile
phone which instructed drivers to say they were unable to take them
there because of "traffic control measures".
An official from the Jianli vehicle management office, surnamed
Liao, told Reuters by telephone, however, that there was a mistake
with the text message and that it was meant to say the "rescue
site".
Several family members managed to reach the crematorium and entered
inside, said a shopkeeper who worked nearby.
Hu Kaihong, a government spokesman, said at a news briefing that
there were more than 1,200 family members in Jianli.
Relatives have asked the government to release the names of
survivors and the dead, and questioned why most of those rescued
were crew members. Some have also demanded to know why the boat did
not dock in the storm, and why the rescued captain and crew members
had time to put on life vests but did not sound any alarm.
There was a heavy security presence outside one of the hotels where
some family members were staying.
"Right now the government has an attitude of complete apathy towards
us," said Cao Feng, 40, whose parents were on board.
(Additional reporting by Joseph Campbell and Engen Tham; Writing by
Ben Blanchard, Kazunori Takada and Sui-Lee Wee; Editing by Paul Tait
and Jeremy Laurence)
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