The media is starting to look at some of the positive long-term implications of the Sichuan earthquake and both the official and civilian responses to it. In the Washington Post, Matthew Forney writes about how citizens are uniting to aid survivors:

All across China, images of mass destruction and individual courage have inspired ordinary citizens to donate money, material and sweat to earthquake victims in the remote foothills of the Himalayas. This national sense of purpose might look similar to the response of average Americans after Hurricane Katrina battered New Orleans, but what’s happening in China is new and significant.

This marks the first time in recent history that ordinary Chinese have participated in a national movement that was not a protest against something — usually a foreign power. Until now, China has defined itself in terms of “Us vs. Them.” Today, it’s “Us Without Them.” The change could have a profound and positive impact on this summer’s Beijing Olympics — and on China’s self-confidence for years to come.

The Washington Post also reports on the “national movement” of citizens contributing aid, financial or otherwise, to the quake victims. Several donors, however, expressed concern over the reliability of domestic NGOs and government organizations accepting donations:

In an acknowledgment that many Chinese mistrust the way the government doles out financial aid, officials have promised to allow public supervision of how donation funds are spent and to submit to an audit process at the end of the relief effort, “lest misappropriations occur,” said Wang Zhenyao, director of disaster relief with the Civil Affairs Ministry.

Jia Jia, 28, a Beijing-based magazine journalist, said it was his “basic duty” to donate in the wake of such a national tragedy. He also encouraged his friends to give. But when it came time to donate his $63, he went to the Web site of the Hong Kong Red Cross.

It is also a universal truth that when tragedy strikes, someone will see it as opportunity to scam for money. Reuters reports:

Police issued a warning after a flurry of text messages hit mobile phones, soliciting disaster assistance in emotional appeals, only asking that funds be deposited in private accounts.

“My family was in the earthquake. Dad and mum urgently need money. Send whatever money you can. Deposit it in our friend’s account,” read one text in the southern province of Guangdong proven to be fake by local reporters.

Nevertheless, the report continues:

…The “black-hearted text messages”, to use the Shenzhen Economic Daily’s phrase, stand in rare contrast to the outpouring of goodwill in China after the quake that may have killed as many as 50,000 people.

Domestic donations in both cash and goods to the quake-stricken areas reached 1.3 billion yuan ($186 million) by Thursday, the Ministry of Civil Affairs announced.

According to the Wall Street Journal’s China Journal blog, adoption officials are being overwhelmed with requests from citizens asking to adopt children who survived the quake without their parents.

In the New York Times, Howard French and Edward Wong look at how the government’s willingness to work with foreign aid teams may contribute to improved ties with neighbors, especially Japan and Taiwan:

The decision to seek outside help reflects the fact that the search for survivors of Monday’s massive earthquake and the struggle to accommodate hundreds of thousands of displaced people from the mountainous region around the epicenter of the quake are too much for China to handle all alone, even after it mobilized 130,000 army soldiers, security forces and medics for relief work.

But the selective invitations to Japan and Taiwan — some foreign nations that have offered aid have so far been told that their services are not needed — may also show that China sees disaster relief as a tactical tool to improve ties with neighbors and soften its international image ahead of the Olympic Games in Beijing in August.

For more details on who is giving and how much, see the Reuters Factbox “Earthquake aid for China,” and a China Rises post which ranks contributions from American corporations.