Shoddily-Built School Collapses Test Beijing’s Openness

An FT report that some parents of children killed in a school collapse in the Sichuan earthquake are considering legal action against local officials they believe responsible for sub-standard construction highlights the growing point of protest in what has otherwise being a “good” disaster response for the authorities.
The school in question, a middle school in [...]

Dior Drops Sharon Stone From Its China Ads

What goes around, kamas around. (Sorry. Too irresitable.)
American actress and Christian Dior spokesperson Sharon Stone has been dropped from its ads in China by the French fashion house Christian Dior for her comments at the Cannes Film Festival last week about the Sichuan earthquake being the consequence of the bad karma of Beijing’s treatment of [...]

New Earthquake Situation Map

ReliefWeb has posted an updated situation map (pdf), a snapshot of which is below. This one concentrates on the barrier lakes, which threaten a “slurry tsunami” if they burst, and on dams at risk:

An estimated 700,000 people are threatened by the possible bursting of earthquake/landslide-caused lakes, according to the authorities. Mass evacuations continue from low-lying [...]

Beijing Asks Tokyo To Send Military Planes To Sichuan

Another piece of earthquake diplomacy: Kyodo news agency says Beijing has sounded out Tokyo on sending Japanese military planes to help with relief efforts in the stricken zone. The Self-Defense Forces’ aircraft would be used to airlift tents and other supplies. It would be the first time Japan’s military would have been in China since [...]

Barrier Lakes Are New Quake Concern

Barrier lakes — those formed by earthquake induced landslides — are the new concern. The Sichuan quake on May 12 created 35 of them, 34 in Sichuan, according to E Jingping, vice-minister for water resources. The situation is still grim, Xinhua reports him as saying, with heavy rains forecast for early this week. Evacuation [...]

China Orders Tent Makers To Deliver Tents To Quake Zone

Prime Minister Wen Jiabao says domestic tent manufacturers have been ordered to produce and transport 30,000 tents a day to the area devastated by the Sichuan quake, and 900,000 within a month. Providing shelter for the estimated 5 million left homeless by the disaster is a top priority as the focus of official relief [...]

Quake Rebuilding Poses Challenge To Beijing’s Political Authority

Interesting read from a trio of Financial Times writers, Mure Dickie, Geoff Dyer and Jamil Anderlini, about the challenges facing Beijing in rebuilding after the quake.
The immediate response from Beijing, harnessing the top-down system quickly to mobilise vast resources, has been widely praised. Yet that same political system is likely to be put to the [...]

Russia’s Medvedev Heads To Beijing, By Way Of Astana

Russia’s new president, Dmitry Medvedev, arrives Friday. Notable as it is that he is making China the destination for his first official trip abroad, the route he is taking is even more so.
He will arrive via Kazakhstan, the energy rich former Soviet republic that is both playing an increasingly pivotal role in Central Asia and [...]

Quake Price Gouging and Scams

I caught a radio report that tents, in short supply to house the 5 million needing temporary shelter following the quake, are selling for five times normal prices in Chengdu. The Party’s anti-corruption committee has now warned that any corrupt practices in connection with earthquake relief will be “swiftly and severely” dealt with. There have [...]

The Grim Statistics Of Sichuan

The death toll of 40,000 gets the headline attention, but there is also a matter of tens of thousands more buried or still missing, a quarter of a million injured and more than 5 million left homeless across eight provinces and municipalities. There have been 156 aftershocks of magnitude 4 or greater, according to the [...]