Cynical Chinese are accusing the authorities of massaging figures relating to China’s Qinghai earthquake, blogs Lindsey Hilsum.
Why did the US Seismological Survey say yesterday’s earthquake in Qinghai was 6.9 on the magnitude scale while the China Earthquake Bureau said 7.1?
Interviewed on Chinese state media, an expert from the Earthquake Bureau said they were using different measuring methods, but cynical Chinese chatting online have accused him of being a “government hired walking dog”. They suspect the figures were massaged.
Why? Well, everyone remembers how bereaved parents in Sichuan blamed corrupt officials for building sub-standard schools, which collapsed in the 2008 earthquake, killing thousands of children. The official document released afterwards said schools should be fortified to resist a quake of up to 7.0.
If yesterday’s earthquake was 7.1, then officials can’t be blamed for schools which failed to withstand the tremor.
We’ll probably never know if that’s the reason for the discrepancy, but schools are clearly the focus of government concern. According to the official news agency, Xinhua, 66 students and 10 teachers were confirmed dead at three schools, including a vocational school.
The provincial governor went straight to a school when he arrived in Yushu, and Premier Wen Jiabao was filmed flipping through a schoolbook after he stood on the rubble and used a bullhorn to pledge his sympathy for local people – a message which was simultaneously translated into Tibetan.
International groups who advocate Tibetan independence are grumbling that the foreign media is reporting the incident as an “earthquake in China” and not acknowledging that this part of Qinghai is part of “historic Tibet”.
“This is a tragedy for Tibetan people, not generic Chinese,” said Philippa Carrick, chief executive of Tibet Society. The Chinese government is only too aware that it must be seen to be doing everything possible to help Tibetans affected by the quake.
Buddhist Monks, who tend to lead protests against Chinese rule, are busy digging out survivors now but could get angry and hard to control if they feel state assistance is inadequate.
The Chinese Communist Party Propaganda Department has ordered the Chinese media not to send journalists to the quake area, nor to report on death, injury or collapsed buildings.
As they did after the Sichuan quake, many are ignoring such draconian restrictions, but – for those who can read Chinese – I’m told that the best sources of information are Chinese journalists and volunteers who use Twitter and its Chinese equivalent, Micro Blog, to send updates from the road and from the rescue scene.
I gather that the netizens’ suspicious comments on the magnitude of the earthquake have been deleted by the Chinese government web police.