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A refugee of the 8-grade Earthquake

Image courtesy of XinHuaNet
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Earthquake: Horror, Heroism and a new way of looking at China
By: Adele NII SHI

“Son, if you are luckily alive, please remember: I love you!” were the dying words recorded in the cell phone from a mother. People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers found her corpse under bricks, cradling a well-protected infant against her breast.

During the 7.8-grade earthquakes in Si Chuan Province, China, older people protecting the young was a common theme. Four middle school students were found alive, hiding under their teacher – QianQiu Tan.

Since May 12, 2008, several seven-plus grade earthquakes have ravaged Si Chuan Province, the epicenter being in Wen Chuan County. According to Xin Hua news, the latest death toll has risen to over 60,560 and 26,221 people have disappeared – this amount was calculated after 13 days of digging to rescue survivors. Over 352,290 injured refugees have been confirmed.

Now, the whole of China is concentrating on an unprecedented rescue. Russian news said the prime minister of the People's Republic of China Jiabao Wen, set off for the disaster zones only two hours after it happened. Over 100,000 soldiers joined the rescue, and traffic jams were reported all over the country, caused by blood donors rushing to give blood.

The large-scale air drop rescue is desperate. “It is most frequent, difficult and fastest,” Qiliang Xu, Commander of the Chinese Air Force, told Xin Hua news.

Over 6000 paratroopers are involved and each military pilot has been flying around 17 hours a day (close to the maximum airtime allowable). Mr Xu said that they were on an impossible mission, flying without guides on the ground and in dangerous weather.

The main first-aid workers were unable to enter into Wen Chuan until May 14, because of destroyed highways and weakened port infrastructure. Even military planes were stopped by windy and cloudy weather.

The earthquake had completely separated the people in Wen Chuan from the world, so the air force made a “desperate” decision: offer the first aid by air drop, regardless of the difficulty.

Another group of military helicopters and planes safely rescued foreign tourists in the earthquake zones. An English traveler told Xin Hua news, when she was notified to wait for the particular planes, she saw many Chinese refugees giving food and clean water to the foreigners – these things are insufficient and valuable in disaster areas.

It seems that everyone in China is involved in the donations to refugees in Si Chuan. The richest man of Chinese descent in the world, Li Ka-shing, donated HK$30 million ($AU4.18 million) – this sum does not include donations by his companies.

Some beggars in the streets put all that they had into the donation boxes, while world-famous movie star Jackie Chan, together with his friend ShouCheng Yang, donated 10 million Yuan (AU$1.5M).

Many blood banks began to reject donors, because they have no more space to store blood. Even the ambassador of Estonia joined the blood donation (see the photo below).

Meanwhile, lots of communities in Chinese cities, such as Shanghai, have already begun to arrange adoptive families for the orphans who lost parents in the Wen Chuan earthquakes.

This natural disaster has united China and other countries or regions in mourning. For example, there was a Buddhist ceremony for the people died in the earthquakes held in Lhasa where a religious riot occurred on March 14, 2008.

Xin Hua news reported the Tibet region donated 20 million Yuan (about $AU3 Million), and relief goods valued about 11.1 million Yuan (about AU$1.6 Million), including medicine, to Si Chuan Province.

Similarly, the Wen Chuan earthquakes caused great sympathy in Taiwan. The response to the tragedy has united the political forces in instead of dividing them.

“Everyone [in Taiwan] is considering how to help the remote friends (the refugees) with no return,” The Hong Kong press reported.

The most astonishing thing about the response to the earthquakes is the cooperation between Japanese and Chinese rescue efforts.

This new sense of cooperation was identified when a Chinese interviewee described members of the Japanese rescue corps as “my family members”. Like some other Asian countries, the Chinese people had a long-term resentment toward Japan, because of the latter’s actions during World War Two.

But this time, Japan’s response to the earthquakes has changed the traditional antagonistic view held by the Chinese toward the Japanese. Japan has offered the extremely clear pictures taken by ALOS remote sensing satellite (to forecast further disasters), experienced earthquake rescue corps and more, even almost all of the supermarkets in Japan put donation boxes in front of their entrance.

Western media complimented the Chinese government on its efficient and humane rescues. The American Press commented that this sort of rescue had demonstrated to the world that China had enough ability and preparation to cope with any unforeseeable situation in the Olympics.