The World Is Shaking

As if enough disasters haven't befallen China this year, something so catastrophic and unpredictable as an earthquake renders everyone humble and powerless in the face of nature.

I've been following the news on the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that hit Southwest China, 60 miles Northwest of Chengdu in Wenchuan County . Aftershocks were felt in neighboring provinces Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu, and all the way in Shanghai and Thailand. 900 miles away in Beijing, friends felt tremors and had to evacuate their skyscraper offices. Thankfully, everyone I know right now, is safe.

At first, the trickle was IMs and emails, then frantic phone calls ensued and I explained that we, here in Beijing, are fine. But as I checked the news throughout the day Monday, the official death toll rose from 4, to a few hundred, to 8500 by late Monday night. As of 5pm Tuesday, the government reported a nearly 12,000 killed and countless more injured as people remain trapped in collapsed buildings.

Over dinner with some friends yesterday, we speculated about the real death toll being much higher than official reports. And I came home, and was shocked to see numbers nearing ten thousand, but all reports so far indicate that the Chinese government is handling this with both a sense of urgency and transparency. Maybe there is a bright spot to be found in this time of need. Many articles have pointed out that the earthquake hit at a place where Han, Hui, and Tibetans live together, where the India and Eurasia tectonic plates collided. But amidst the ethnic turmoil over Tibet and PR blit in China the last few months, devastation has hit the rural poor equally, without regard to ethnic labeling, and the response, also, has been unified.

Media coverage of the earthquake has included many first-person interviews and videos of earthquake and relief effort. Video of Premier Wen Jiabao visiting Dujiangyan both didn't exploit and didn't eliminate images of a sobbing, weather-beaten granny, clearly struggling with her grief after this disaster, standing next to him. I agree with China Law Blog that even a few years ago (example: SARS), the government couldn't be trusted to release an accurate casualty count or allow media at the scene of an event like this, so with all of the ugly censorship and anti-CNN goading that has gone on lately, the government is really trying to rescue and respond to the earthquake victims instead of hiding from potential embarassment. Premier Wen was on the ground within 6 hours, over 1,300 rescue workers were on the ground in Wenchuan county (population: a little over 100,000) within 12 hours.

Later, people will speculate about whether this earthquake could have been predicted (not even with the best technology is it completely possible), and whether humans were partially to fault. Also at dinner, we talked about the argument that the huge reservoir the Three Gorges Dam project has created is predicted to exacerbates earthquakes tremors. But right now, we have to find all the survivors first.

Tonight, as rescue crews have to deal with traffic jams, damaged tunnels, and rain to get to victims still buried underneath rubble, my prayers are with the victims, families, rescue workers, and laobaixing of Sichuan.

Over 65,000,000 RMB (nearly $10 million) has been donated through the Red Cross already.
How you can help (kudos to the Shanghaiist for being so vigilant in updating).

*Edit 0:44am Thurs 5/14: Pandas shaken but OK in Wolong Reserve.