This post also comes from Tianya, and is dated the evening of May 15th.

I haven’t closed my eyes for two days. I’m a student from Wuxi’s Professional Health Institute (Wuxi is located in Jiangsu province, in eastern China). After we learned of the earthquake in Sichuan, 8 of us voluntarily organized ourselves into a group, and had one of our parents drive us to Sichuan. The expressway’s still blocked, but along the way we saw a couple military trucks, and we caught a ride. We arrived at the earthquake zone, and we’ve been helping rescue the wounded since.

Read the rest of this entry »

http://www.mitbbs.com/article_t/ChinaNews/31496095.html

The thing that 16 year old Li An’ning fears the most is shaking. Lying on her stretcher, the rescuers carrying her to safety are careful with every step, afraid any small tremble will bring screams from her.

“I’m not even afraid of death now, but I’m terrified of even the smallest shake”, she said.

Read the rest of this entry »

For those who care about China, your effort is needed now more than ever. Here are a few more options for those looking to make a donation to the Sichuan earthquake relief effort.

Read the rest of this entry »

If there’s one positive that has come out of the recent conflict in Tibet (and subsequent echoes around the world), it has raised awareness amongst many Chinese that the problem exists.  I think many (including myself) have learned much more about Tibetan wishes over the past two months, and this type of understanding can only help.

Kudos to those at Harvard who organized a very interesting panel discussion discussing the issues.  From the Harvard Crimson:

Tibet Poverty Alleviation Fund President Arthur N. Holcombe said that a resolution would only result from dialogue between the two groups.

“It is important for all of us that solutions to the problem are not an either-or-situation,” he said. “The solution must come from joint collaboration with the Han and Tibetan peoples.”

…
“Ultimately we are here today to listen to different perspectives on this situation,” Holcombe added.

Senior fellow in East Asian Legal Studies at the Law School Lobsang Sangay—who showed photographs of violence in Tibet—praised the discussion for achieving what he said the Chinese government has done poorly.

“Finally, after the tragedy, one good thing has happened,” he said, referring to last night’s panel. “The Han Chinese have taken responsibility—shared responsibility.”

…

Zhongrui Yin ’11, organizer of the event, said that last night’s dialogue was a positive step in achieving harmony between the groups.

“I was very delighted that we were able to have a very respectful, yet very frank, dialogue,” he said. “I wish the speakers could have talked to each other more, but the overall attitude was very positive.

Read the rest of this entry »

Within 2 hours of the actual earthquake, premier Wen Jiabao was on a plane to Chengdu. Upon landing, he was on the scene at the devastated city of Dujiangyan within hours. He has barely slept over the last 24-30 hours, personally attending to details on the scene. He has been in almost constant tears, doing what little he can to help.  He has been quoted as saying to government officials: “Only one sentence: the people feed you,  you know what you must do.”

The death toll continues to rise. The worst devastation appears to be in Beichuang, where basically the entire county-town has been leveled. The People’s Liberation Army and Armed Police have double-time marched into the area, but they could not bring heavy equipment. They can only provide basic comfort at this time; trapped school-children are calling out to them… “uncles, please help!” Villagers are being evacuated slowly, leaving behind probably half of the original population of Beichuang in the ruins.

Beijing has been remarkably open with covering this entire tragedy, not pulling a single punch. Images of children crushed and trapped within schools are on the front-pages of all Chinese newspapers and websites. Every resource within China is being brought in.  The Olympic torch relay has been drastically modified.  The route has been shrunk, and there will be a minute of silence in memory of those lost.  Donation boxes will be setup around the route; the relay will now be a chance to raise money for the victims.

An elite airborne paratrooper unit (15th Airborne Corps) was widely reported to have been planning to parachute into the heart of the devastation yesterday, with road access still cut off. With horrible weather, many expected a very high casualty rate amongst the paratroopers; many reportedly wrote their last wills in preparation. With weather growing even worse in this mountainous area, however, this desperate measure was postponed for now.

Nations and people around the world have offered their sympathies and assistance. The Dalai Lama has applauded Beijing’s remarkably quick response to the earthquake, and is praying for the souls of the dead. Earthquake rescue teams from every nation stands ready to deploy; in the face of overwhelming support for the government effort so far, this last item is probably the only point of contention in the Chinese world right now. Some in China accuse the Chinese government of wanting to save face, and thus refusing international teams on the ground. However, Taiwanese experts commented that during their earthquake effort a few years back, dealing with international experts (speaking different languages and unfamiliar with the setting) can actually serve as a major distraction in the early hours of such a crisis. Beijing has said it welcomes all aid, and international teams will be welcomed in as soon as the roads into the mountains are cleared.

And yet again during this 2008, the Olympic year, the world’s attention is squarely on China.

This story just off the wire talks about more violence on the foothills of the Himalayas, resulting from a recent government crack-down on a long simmering separatist movement. Read the rest of this entry »

A devastating earthquake has struck western Sichuan province. Early press reports are available here, and here; video from CCTV is here (Internet Explorer required). The earthquake’s epicenter is in Wenchuang county, which is part of the larger Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture.

The earthquake occurred at a very shallow depth, which accounts for the heavy damage, as well as people fleeing from swaying buildings in distant cities like Taipei, Shanghai, and Bangkok. To give some context for this scale: Chengdu’s distance from Shanghai is roughly similar to the distance of New York from Florida, Winnipeg from Quebec, Belfast from Rome.

Most of the damage and deaths appear to be located in Wenchuan county. Wenchung county is in the southern part of Aba (also known as Ngawa) prefecture. Wenchuan county has a population that is 46% Han, 34% Qiang, and 18% Tibetan. For Aba prefecture as a whole, 54% of the population is Tibetan, and 25% are Han. There were significant violent riots in Aba prefecture in March.

Premier Wen Jiabao is already on the ground in Sichuan province, and will direct the rescue operation personally. Road access has reportedly been cut off to the mountainous areas where the epicenter of the quake is; we won’t know full story for days.

UPDATE: Death count has crossed the 8000 boundary, and likely to climb higher. For those able to help, instructions for making donations to the Chinese Red Cross are listed below.

Read the rest of this entry »

A reader of our blog asked this question on a previous thread:

To Buxi and CLC:
Thanks for your replies. WRT Tibetan independence, some Tibetans seek it, presumably as they see it to be to their benefit. PRC opposes it, as they see it as a detriment. I would like to explore the second part. I’ve read the historical justifications for Tibet being within China, such as the territorial relationship dating back hundreds of years at least. There’s also the point that the PLA moved in to liberate Tibetan serfs and slaves. In moving forward, the principle of “One China” drives policy. My questions are the following:
1. If a majority of the residents of present day Tibet do not want to remain in China (I realize that is a major assumption, and the act of accurately determining that ie a referendum is not a realistic option for the CCP circa 2008), how does it benefit China to keep this territory in the fold? It’s like keeping a bad apple employee within a company: wouldn’t company performance, and the morale of remaining employees, improve by removing said bad apple, such that all who remain truly want to be there, and are willing to wholeheartedly contribute to the “business” of improving China?
2. “One China” is a euphemism I don’t understand. There was, is, and ever will be only one China. The question is what geographical parts you include. Does a region that at one time was considered part of China, need to forever remain so, for the present and future benefit of the whole?

Read the rest of this entry »

In recent weeks, Western press coverage has substantially changed in tone from earlier, one-sided demonized versions.  One article today which, while still criticizing Beijing on human rights + Tibet issues, concludes there is another side of the Olympics story yet to be heard.

Telegraph: New China basks in golden glow of Olympics

Transparency in government remains one of the major obstacles in China’s social and political reform. The Communist Party has publicly acknowledged the need for more transparency; only in the last 3-5 years has government offices at every level around the country begun to add press departments, issue press releases, and hold regularly press conferences. But this is only one step in government transparency.

The next little step might be the “Government Release of Information” regulation (中华人民共和国政府信息公开条例) issued by the State Council in January of 2007. This regulation went into effect on May 1st of this year, 2008. The regulation requires administrative government offices go through a formal process in terms of processing, analyzing, and finally releasing various types of information (including budgets, planning decisions, details on government expenditures, etc) to the public.

This article from the Guangzhou-based Southern Weekly gives us some idea of how this regulation might change the way Chinese government offices does business.

Read the rest of this entry »