With a quake that has so far killed nearly 12,000 Chinese people it appears the Chinese government is taking disaster relief tips from their friends in Burma:
“At this point, transportation in affected areas is still being obstructed and it is impossible even for our own rescue teams to reach the disaster-hit areas,” said Wang Zhenyao, head of the Civil Affairs Ministry’s relief department.
“So the conditions are not yet ripe for us to allow international rescue teams into China or disaster-hit areas,” he told a news conference, when asked how China would respond to recent worldwide offers of help. [AFP]
Impossible to reach the disaster site? Doesn’t the Chinese military own helicopters to get to disaster area? This seems like another PR smokescreen from the Chinese government in order to control the information coming out of the area which allowing international rescue teams in would compromise. Considering how often the Chinese government has been complaining that politics should not effect the Olympic Games you would think they would agree that politics should not effect disaster relief operations as well. Sonagi over at TMH has a posting up that further shows the PR smokescreen the Chinese government appears more concerned about implementing then actually saving the lives of their own citizens.
Ironically China in 2006 held an international earthquake rescue drill and now none of the international teams that participated in the earthquake rescue drills are even allowed into the country to utilize the skills they trained for in China.
Here are some of the few images that have been released in the media of the damage caused by the earthquake:
Destroyed building in Dujiangyan, China
Victims in Beichuan, China
You can see a small gallery of pictures here. No matter what you think about the Chinese government everyone should keep the people effected by this earthquake in their prayers.
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8:51 pm on May 13th, 2008 1
8:55 pm on May 13th, 2008 2
12,000 - I wish it were 12,000,000
10:04 pm on May 14th, 2008 3
12,000 - I wish it were 12,000,000
Apple Pie on May 13th, 2008
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do you know you are an asshole?
10:12 pm on May 14th, 2008 4
“You can see a small gallery of pictures here. No matter what you think about the Chinese government everyone should keep the people effected by this earthquake in their prayers.”
11:27 am on May 15th, 2008 5
Maybe the Chinese government is taking pointers from the US government’s grossly bungled handling of Hurricane Katrina from start to finish, including millions of dollars in aid that was squandered:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/28/AR2007042801113_pf.html
1:02 pm on May 15th, 2008 6
Sonagi interesting read. I’m not surprised how incompetent the Homeland Security Dept. was which was only compounded by the incompetence of the authorities in Louisiana.
That doesn’t mean that China should deny international help either if it is needed.
8:03 pm on May 15th, 2008 7
GI, I used to volunteer for international relief aid workers as an interpreter very briefly in China. The dril l is NOT enough for international workers to accustomize themselves to the culture, the languages and foods. If you understand the terrains, the weather in the earthquake area, you would not second-guess that it is simply not feasible to accomondate international workers at this point of time. International workers need interpreters (sometimes the interpreters must speak and understand local dialects which can be hard to understand even for Chinese), not farmiliar with the culture and always have problems with the foods (especially in that area its pretty hard to get foods that are not spicy). The Chinese soilders and police force are much more accustomed to such tasks and they can initiate much faster response even under extreme circumstances (such as having to hike for over 40 miles in heavy rains through mudslides and rockslides to reach the epicenter in this case). Manpower has never posed a serious challenge in rescue work in China - it has enough manpower to overcome that however it is really the foods, tents, and blood and other supplies that are in dire need. The Chinese government gets its priority right this time in my honest opinion.
8:07 pm on May 16th, 2008 8
[...] South Korea is also standing by to send medical personnel as well. I have yet to see if China will allow in any western rescue teams which they have so far declined help from. [...]
8:07 pm on May 16th, 2008 9
[...] South Korea is also standing by to send medical personnel as well. I have yet to see if China will allow in any western rescue teams which they have so far declined help from. [...]
10:39 am on May 20th, 2008 10
ohoh, I know what you can say now: allowing foreign rescure teams to aid now, and transparency of the media, and anything postive, are just a showoff of China. How’s that?!