BEIJING — China will inspect road safety nationwide after traffic accidents in the past two weeks, including one that killed 36 people, spurring public criticism of the government.

Safety standards for long-distance buses will be checked, China’s State Administration of Work Safety said in a statement dated Monday that was posted on its website Wednesday. It said drivers on trips of more than 622 miles will be required to make mandatory rest stops and speeding will be punished.

China saw 18 ‘‘significant or extraordinary traffic accidents’’ so far this year, including three in the last two weeks, the administration said. A failure to minimize deadly man-made road accidents may cause the people to lose trust in the government, a commentary carried by the state-run Xinhua News Agency said Tuesday.

‘‘For much of the general public, the more fatal accidents occur, the greater the government’s credibility is undermined,’’ Xinhua said in the report.

A double-decker sleeper bus crashed into a methanol-loaded tanker on Sunday near Yan’an in northwestern Shaanxi Province, causing a fire that killed 36 people and hurt three. Five people were killed and another three were injured in a collision Tuesday between a van and a truck in the southwest province of Sichuan, Xinhua reported.

The Shaanxi accident was the most popular topic on Sina Corp.’s Weibo microblog service on Monday as some users said the government may not have paid enough attention to long-distance buses.