China impresses the world but political
- From: cksf <chow-kow@sick-fûçkk.org>
- Date: Sat, 24 May 2008 19:19:19 +0800
China impresses the world but political
Toronto Star - Ontario, Canada
When the massive earthquake hit China's southwest Sichuan province more
than a week ago, it brought great sorrow to millions of Chinese. ...
<http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/429439>
China impresses the world but political questions linger
VINCENT YU/AP
Chinese soldiers move earthquake relief supplies at a base in Sichuan province
May 20, 2008. The Chinese government has been praised for its quick and thorough
response to the May 12 earthquake.
Choose text size
After bodies are buried, Beijing needs to launch a national debate on lessons of
the disaster
May 24, 2008 04:30 AM
Wenran Jiang
When the massive earthquake hit China's southwest Sichuan province more than a
week ago, it brought great sorrow to millions of Chinese. Given the military
junta's dismal handling of the cyclone that killed more than 100,000 in Burma
earlier in the month, the world held its breath over how China would react to
its worst disaster in more than three decades, one that has killed more than
55,000 people and left 5 million homeless.
The world had good reason to be worried. When the last mega-earthquake occurred
in 1976, killing 250,000 people in the city of Tangshan, China was a closed
society suffering from 10 years of internal political turmoil, and the
government tightly controlled the flow of information. Beijing did not mobilize
a nationwide rescue and refused outside help. Reform and the openness that
followed have changed China dramatically. But the Chinese government's initial
cover-up of the SARS epidemic in 2003 led to deadly consequences around the
world and indicated that the country still had a long way to go to become a
responsible world power.
Yet the Chinese leadership wasted no time in taking decisive action this time,
and what the world has witnessed since is one of the largest mobilizations and
most extensive rescue operations in response to a peacetime natural disaster in
human history.
President Hu Jintao issued a nationwide call for an "all-out" effort in the
rescue operation minutes after the earthquake. Premier Wen Jiabao immediately
flew to the disaster zone to set up the relief command centre. The People's
Liberation Army (PLA) implemented emergency response measures less than 30
minutes following the quake. And within 90 minutes, China's 200-member elite
search-and-rescue team was boarding a plane in Beijing with equipment, medical
supplies and search dogs.
The sheer political determination of the top leadership has ensured the
effective mobilization of all government resources. At the very core of the
rescue and relief efforts has been the rapid deployment of 130,000 PLA soldiers
and paramilitary police forces within days of the disaster. The operation has
moved 5 per cent of China's 2.3 million military personnel to the disaster zone,
utilizing airlift and parachute drops, rail transportation, motorized transport
and foot marches to reach remote, cut-off towns and villages.
The Chinese media simultaneously broke away from traditional controls and
provided around-the-clock live coverage of the unfolding rescue operations. The
images of a tearful Premier Wen at the epicentre comforting crying babies, the
selfless, young PLA soldiers desperate in their fight against time to save
lives, the thousands of dead children under collapsed school buildings, and the
joy of survivors being pulled out of the rubble have sent shock waves throughout
China and triggered an unprecedented emotional response.
The tragedy has rallied the nation and brought out the best in its citizens. The
masses that were used to government-sponsored political movements in the past
are now acting on their own initiative: lining up to donate blood; opening their
wallets to give cash that is now counted in the billions; and rushing from all
corners of the country to volunteer.
Just as the opening of the domestic media has galvanized the Chinese public, the
mostly free access to the quake region given to foreign media has resulted in
very positive reporting by foreign journalists, spurring worldwide sympathy for
the victims and praise for the government.
With China opening up to the world for help, foreign rescue and medial teams are
being allowed to come into the country for the first time to assist in relief
operations and generous donations have flooded in from around the globe.
The world has good reason to be impressed. China has sent a clear message that
it is no Burma. Chinese leaders have set an example for the impotent generals in
Rangoon on how to execute a disaster relief operation. This may well have
influenced Burma's recent decision to accept an international assistance
mission.
But for a tectonic shift to occur in the world's perception of China as a new
kind of superpower, Beijing needs to do more than demonstrate that its crisis
management is better than Burma's, or that post-earthquake Sichuan is not like
post-Katrina New Orleans.
First, the Chinese leadership faces the challenge of translating the initial
success of the disaster relief effort into long-lasting benefits for the Chinese
people. While Beijing should be congratulated for its very human-centred rescue
efforts, extending such an approach to other areas, such as Tibet, would win
China greater respect. A global power's responsibility begins at home, and this
applies to China now more than ever before.
And when the victims are buried and the reconstruction process begins, Beijing
should encourage a nationwide debate on the lessons of the catastrophe. The
government must give honest answers to thousands of grieving parents as to why a
country that has built some of the world's best skyscrapers in Beijing and
Shanghai could see so many school buildings collapse so easily during the
earthquake.
It also is high time for China to reflect on a development strategy that has
heavily favoured the cities over the countryside, the coastal regions over the
interior and the rich over the poor.
China will remain in the spotlight as the Olympic Games approach. Beijing will
be tested for its willingness and ability to play a more active international
role, commensurate to its growing world power status.
While it is understandable that the Chinese public has been emotionally involved
in such a domestic calamity, the country will command universal respect only
when its government and citizens display similar care and compassion when
humanitarian crises occur elsewhere in the world.
Wenran Jiang is acting director of the China Institute at the University of
Alberta and is a senior fellow of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.
CKinSF.
aka running dog chow-kow-sick-fûçkk(cksf)
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