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| The year of the quake | | Print | |
| Jul / Aug 2008 | |||
 Rowan Callick looks at the earth moving social and political changes which rocked China in May.The year 2008 will not be recalled chiefly by the Chinese people as the year of the snowstorms or of the Tibet revolt, or even of the Beijing Olympics. This is the year of the quake. There will be few if any readers of this magazine who have not been deeply touched by the human impact of the earthquake that struck mountainous areas of Sichuan province, north of the capital Chengdu, at 2.37 on Monday afternoon, May 12. Comparisons were swiftly drawn between the energetic way in which China handled its disaster, and the fumbling of the generals in neighbouring Burma in coping with the catastrophic Cyclone Nargis. But more telling for China, are comparisons with its own past. In the early hours of July 28 1976, Tangshan, 320 km east of Beijing, was hit by a quake of about the same size as Sichuan, eventually killing 242,000 people, almost four times as many as in Sichuan. But it was kept a secret. The news was not released. Foreign help was neither sought nor accepted. It was only weeks later that the rumours by then sweeping the country were finally confirmed. It has long been believed in China that such natural disasters are harbingers of the demise of an emperor or even the fall of a dynasty. That was one reason why the leadership in 1976, uncertain of where the power plays were taking the country as the 10-year Cultural Revolution, and Mao Zedong, ebbed away, was so insistent on suppressing the information. Anyway, Mao was dead within 10 weeks. In Sichuan, information poured out from the start. Usually, such big national events are ring-fenced, and only the state news agency Xinhua and the national state broadcaster, China Central TV, are allowed in. All the news is then disseminated from these two sources. This time was different. Whether it was because the provincial government was so shocked and preoccupied, or because China's media have simply started to become more pro-active, or even because the central authorities opted for a more open approach, it is difficult to know. But the impact was massive. Newsrooms from Zhuhai to Urumqi to Harbin simply decided for themselves that their readers and viewers and listeners needed to know for themselves what was happening, and sent teams of journalists there. They did a magnificent job.China, and the rest of the world too as international media also gained immediate, free access, soon discovered the extent of the tragedy, told through one heart breaking story after the next. The second epochal difference from all previous disasters in China, was that individuals, groups of work mates, and members of myriad clubs were struck by an urgent need to go to Sichuan and do what they could to help - to show solidarity with the suffering victims, to take them medicines or food or clothes, to help rescue people buried, or simply to listen to the grief of the survivors. In previous times, they would have thought that the emperor, or the army, or the party, would take charge of such events and do everything that could be done. Not now. The era of the volunteer has dawned in China. Thirty years ago, Chinese people, especially those in the countryside, sick of poverty, began to flex their elbows and create some space to do business for themselves. The pragmatic emerging leader Deng Xiaoping pushed the party to adapt to this growing grass roots market economy. The rest, in an economic sense, is history. Now, people are creating some elbow room in the social realm - to do good, to help people, to develop their clubs and societies into significant, benevolent actors. This is a massive, unselfconscious movement in modern China, which is especially being driven by young people - who have previously often been dismissed as spoiled young emperors and empresses. What appears to be emerging, is a community of sympathy embracing, essentially, all Han Chinese people, within and without the People's Republic. Within this community, it appears, people are beginning to assume the right - even, over time, maybe, the responsibility - to involve themselves, starting at this early stage in doing good deeds. This is in part the result of China's economic success. Those who feel especially impelled by act, include those who have some free time and spare resources. If this does prove an enduring trend, and the party again demonstrates its adaptability by making some room for this social activism, the implications for everyone who relates to China are considerable - in employment policy, in corporate social responsibility issues, in the development of social services, for a start. Other issues are emerging from the quake that may prove less important in the big picture, but still remain as tests of the capacity of the government and of the system to learn and to improve people's confidence that China is better prepared for further disasters, which are bound to come in such a large country, 20 percent extra above the size of Australia. These issues include ensuring that China introduces the right regulations for all structures - and especially public buildings like schools and hospitals - and implements them, and inspects them to ensure they meet those standards. Sadly, thousands of children died in buildings that collapsed swiftly while other structures around, remained relatively unharmed. It is hard to know at this stage whether this is due to corruption, incompetence, or simply cutting corners in order to meet the new orders that flowed from Beijing requiring all children to be given nine years of compulsory schooling - but without providing sufficient new resources to carry out the policy. This characteristic structure - with policy coming from the top down, revenues from the bottom up - has resulted in most school heads in rural China needing to spend much of their time chasing donations. I saw the impact of this for myself at Juyuan, where about 300 children and teachers were killed. Their tormented parents, in almost every case the parents of a single child, stood around staring at the debris, discussing what to do next. In the spirit of openness that has marked the relief efforts in Sichuan, it would be appropriate if the inquiry the government has announced were to be made public. This would comprise another step forward. Architects and engineers in China are also urging an audit of all public buildings, to ensure those already constructed meet required standards. If not, they may need to be reinforced - including with steel made from Australian iron ore and nickel. Another test of the capacity of the system to adapt to the new age of the volunteer, the new age of charity, will be its ability to provide proper, transparent checks to see that the vast amounts of money donated for the victims, do go to the people in need. As I write, three weeks after the quake, it remains the case that money and gifts of clothes and other practical items are best directed through volunteer groups on the ground, including car clubs who have tirelessly ferried goods to the places they are most needed. This is a positive social eruption whose aftershocks will be all positive. ■ *Rowan Callick is The Australian's Beijing based China correspondent.
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