Matt Schiavenza From the Dragon to the Apple- A Sinophile in New York

Aftershocks

The Chinese government's response to the earthquake has been nothing short of remarkable, especially given the country's recent history in dealing with major crises. The transparency and efficacy with which Beijing helped coordinate relief efforts and reassured a grieving nation has truly impressed me. Not long ago, China had a reputation for bungling its disaster responses, from the Tangshan quake to the Yangtzi floods to SARS. Given the scale of the current disaster, I must salute the Communist Party leadership for a job well done.

One interesting development in particular has been the rise of Wen Jiabao, China's avuncular premier. With President Hu unavailable, Wen was dispatched to Sichuan and proved himself an inspirational figure, calling for China's children to persevere in the aftermath of tragedy. Like leaders in other authoritarian regimes, China's top officials are at turns ubiquitious and invisible. Hu and Wen appear regularly in Chinese news broadcasts and on banners, but are still unelected and unaccountable. Seeing Wen walking amongst his people, providing assistance and leadership, struck me as a new development in Chinese politics. The victims of the quake were not Potemkin villagers, carefully arranged to elicit maximum political benefit. These are real Chinese citizens being attended to by their leaders, and I hope the Chinese leadership will deal with future crises accordingly.

Then again, the enormous amount of corruption in the Chinese system cannot be ignored. The New York Times reports that villagers affected by the quake are wondering why so many schools collapsed while government buildings remained upright. If children are the future, shouldn't great effort be extended to protecting their physical safety? To their credit, certain Chinese officials have admitted that construction on schools has been shoddy at times, but that is small comfort to the parents whose children were trapped by fallen buildings.