Word: sichuan
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...quake, which struck the Tibetan plateau at 7:49 a.m., is one of the largest recorded in the immediate area, which is rife with seismic activity. The May 12, 2008, Sichuan earthquake, which killed 87,000, was centered about 375 miles (600 km) to the southeast of the Qinghai temblor. So far at least 11 schools have collapsed in Qinghai, and the number of dead students stands at 66, with dozens more trapped, provincial education secretary Wang Yubo said. Two years ago as many as 6,000 students died in collapsed classrooms in Sichuan. The anger of their parents, some...
While Beijing discouraged any efforts to investigate why so many schools collapsed in Sichuan two years ago, it did throw the might of the state into an aggressive rescue and rebuilding campaign in that province. The central government is following a similar path in Qinghai, sending a huge amount of resources to the remote mountain area. "The government does a finer job than many when it comes to crises," says Russell Leigh Moses, a Beijing-based political scholar. "The sort of centralizing impulses that have been the hallmark of the current leadership enables them to respond in a large...
State media has carried extensive reports of the rescue operations, but it has not yet hit the saturation coverage levels that followed the Sichuan earthquake. Some regional media outlets have been told by the Communist Party's Central Publicity Department to recall their reporters from the disaster zone in Qinghai, according to Chinese journalists familiar with the orders. The likely motivation is to limit coverage of collapsed schools or other politically sensitive aspects of the disaster. President Hu Jintao cut short a trip to South America to oversee the emergency response. Premier Wen Jiabao flew to Qinghai on Thursday afternoon...
Beijing must now try to avoid rekindling the anger that grew in the wake of the cataclysm of two years ago, when a massive quake tore through neighboring Sichuan province, killing at least 87,000 people and leaving millions homeless. Then, as now, the majority of victims were killed in buildings that collapsed. Despite an estimated $250 billion recovery plan, allegations that faulty construction contributed to that death toll - particularly at the schools - have plagued China's government ever since. (See pictures of China's Sichuan quake, six months after...
...tourists and traders - and their money - directly to Lhasa, the capital of what the Chinese have demarcated as the Tibet Autonomous Region. (The Dalai Lama claims a larger territory for Tibet, including Qinghai province, where Yushu lies, and the Tibetans have their own name for Qinghai and parts of Sichuan province: Kham.) Yushu's villagers, monks and herders tend to be wary of the central government in Beijing. Many worry that the influx of Han Chinese migrants threatens Tibetan culture, and some consider China an occupying force...