“From what we have learnt from the region’s 2008 quake, economic impacts will be limited. Losses in local areas should not be blown up to a disaster for the whole economy,” said Wang Xiaoguang, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Governance.

[...]More days will be needed to calculate detailed losses, but the figure will be significantly lower than the mightier [2008] quake that jolted Sichuan’s Wenchuan City, which left about 87,000 people dead or missing, according to market estimates.

A Barclays report on Monday projected direct economic losses at about 10 billion yuan (1.6 billion U.S. dollars), much lower than the 845 billion yuan resulted from the Wenchuan quake. The bank has maintained its China growth forecasts.

[...]The economic impact the quake may bring will be like a change from 7.7 percent to 7.6 percent in the country’s growth, said Fanwei, an analyst at the Beijing-based Hongyuan Securities.

More bullish post-quake sentiment was expressed by the Global Times:

“The earthquake will affect market sentiment in the short term but will not trigger a crash or impact stocks in the long term,” Li Daxiao, director of research with Shenzhen-based Yingda Securities, told the Global Times Sunday.

According to Li, the effect of Saturday’s earthquake on the stock market will not be bigger than that of the Wenchuan Earthquake in 2008, when the stock market was going through a bearish phase, compared with the initial stages of a recovery now.

[...]Based on calculations on damage from previous earthquakes, the impact of Saturday’s earthquake on the country’s macro economy will be so small as to be statistically insignificant, [Lianxun Securities analyst] Yang [Xiaowei] said.

The Wall Street Journal focuses in on Sichuan’s local economy, summarizing the economic impact of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake and showing how rebuilding efforts can be expected to stimulate certain industries:

Sichuan is one of China’s most populous provinces and occupies a strategic location as the gateway to the rapidly developing west. But it still punches below its weight economically, with output of 2.1 trillion yuan ($340 billion) in 2011, equivalent to about 4% of the national total.

[...]Sichuan’s massive 2008 earthquake cratered growth in provincial industrial output to 3.6% year-on-year in May of that year from 24.6% in April. Even then, national output growth was largely unchanged, and by August Sichuan had recovered close to previous levels.

[...]Even if the immediate impact on output is limited, the regional economy could still benefit from the boost given by rebuilding. In 2009, China’s economy was hit by the global financial crisis, with growth slowing to 9.2% from 9.6% in 2008. But thanks in part to the boost to investment from rebuilding, Sichuan’s growth accelerated to 14.5% year on year, up from 11% in 2008.

Another report from the Global Times shows that while stock prices for certain economic linchpins in Sichuan fell after the quake, medical and infrastructure stocks took off:

Sichuan-based distillers Wuliangye Yibin, Sichuan Swellfun, Sichuan Tuopai Shede Wine and Luzhou Laojiao saw a drop in share price of between 2.3 and 2.88 percent.

Emei Shan Tourism also saw its shares fall 2.76 percent, with local tourism expected to be affected after the disaster.

Life and property insurance companies also suffered a slide in share prices, amid a rise in claims related to the earthquake.

[...]But despite the bearish trend, Northeast Pharmaceutical Group and Shandong Lukang Pharmaceutical saw their share prices rise by the daily trading limit of 10 percent Monday, compared with a slight fall in the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index of 0.11 percent.

Another company that saw stock prices take off in the wake of the earthquake was Chongqing Fuling Zhacai Group, who produce the Sichuan-style pickle that Premier Li Keqiang was photographed eating for breakfast while visiting the quake zone. The Wall Street Journal reports:

A photograph of Chinese Premier Li Kequiang’s spicy Sichuan breakfast whetted investors’ appetites for one of the country’s leading pickle companies Monday.

The shares of Chongqing Fuling Zhacai Group Co., one of China’s largest producers of the Sichuan-style preserved pickle known for its spicy, sour and salty taste, soared as much as nearly 7% on a day when the broader Chinese stock market fell on worries over the damage the weekend earthquake would have on economic growth.

State media released a photograph of Mr. Li eating the pickled breakfast in a makeshift tent early Sunday morning in Lushan, the epicenter of the earthquake that has so far claimed 188 lives and wounded tens of thousands of people.

Looking back to 2008, the Global Times warns against the dangerous bubble that speculation in disaster-related industries could create:

Back in 2008, when Wenchuan was devastated by an earthquake that claimed more than 60,000 lives, several influential market players put forward calls not to sell stocks of firms based in Sichuan Province so that these businesses could retain capital for rebuilding. It wasn’t long before sensational rumors also began percolating through the market that several prominent fund managers had received calls from the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) ordering them to buy stocks in order to keep the market stable. Hordes of smaller retail investors pounced on this seemingly credible “news” and began pouring capital into listed companies that were either based in Sichuan or directly impacted by the disaster. For several days in a row, these stocks shot to the 10-percent daily limit as more and more investors got involved. But when big investors took their profits, the speculative bubble burst and left many retail investors with huge losses.

But more than five years later, similar tricks were on display in the wake of the weekend earthquake in Ya’an county, Sichuan Province. On Monday, stocks of Sichuan-based construction and building material companies saw their prices rally in what was otherwise a mostly down day for the markets. These shares found support on widespread beliefs that post-disaster reconstruction efforts would translate into more orders for these firms, which would of course mean more revenue and profits. Such ideas seemed reasonable on the surface, but just didn’t hold up under scrutiny.

Moving from the financial market back to Sichuan’s local economy, the South China Morning Post reports on a noodle shop in Yingjing county – just south of hard-hit Lushan county – capitalizing on the influx of rescue workers, much to the outrage of locals and netizens:

Chinese internet users said on Tuesday that a noodle shop in Yingjing county had raised the price of its popular tata noodles, a local speciality, to 20 yuan per bowl, from five yuan.

Netizens accused the shop-owners of “immorally” capitalising on the large numbers of rescue workers but doing little to contribute to relief efforts. The workers were enroute to neighbouring Lushan county, but were held back by damaged roads and forced to stop in Yingjing.

Yingjing residents demanded an apology from the shop’s owner. But they were only angered further after the owner shut the doors and “disappeared”.

For more on the 2013 Sichuan earthquake, see prior CDT coverage.

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The quake, rated at a magnitude of 7.0 according to the China Earthquake Networks Center and 6.6 by the U.S. Geological Survey (followed by more than 3,600 aftershocks), hit the prefecture-level city of Ya’an in western Sichuan province just after 8:00 AM on April 20. Tremors were felt by Ya’an natives working in nearby Chengdu, who along with other out-of-town Ya’an residents anxiously headed home to survey the damage. The New York Times reports:

[...V]illagers who work in Chengdu, about 100 miles away, streamed back home Sunday morning, many on foot, the lucky ones on motorbikes, to check on their homes.

Song Yuanqing, 43, a construction worker, arrived back after a 22-hour trip to find his roof and the walls unstable. “We would like to do something, but we can’t do anything,” Mr. Song said as he sat with neighbors around an outdoor fire built by the village leader in his backyard. Some people had slept under the machinery at a lumber yard.

[...]Yang Yubing, an executive at a sculpture factory in Baoxing County, one of the hardest-hit areas, said he was visiting Chengdu when he felt the tremors. He immediately left on a seven-hour drive to his home in Baoxing. But emergency workers stopped him when he got close to his apartment, Mr. Yang said. “They said five or six kilometers of roads were collapsed,” he said in a telephone interview. “We are all living in temporary tents in the school.” Badly injured people were taken to hospitals by helicopter, he said.

The Guardian tells of another migrant worker who found his home destroyed and his family missing upon returning to Longmen township in Lushan county – a hard-hit region in northeastern Ya’an:

19-year-old stonemason Shu Liwen was working in the north of Chinawhen he heard the news of the quake. He borrowed money from his boss to buy a plane ticket, went straight to the airport and flew to Chengdu. “The first thing I heard when I arrived was that my colleague, a 40-year-old stonemason, was killed when a boulder hit his car,” he said. “And then a bit later, as I got closer to home, I found out my family home had been destroyed and my mother and brother were missing. I fear for the worst, but I really hope I can find them.”

Many whose homes were left standing evacuated as aftershocks echoed throughout Sichuan, The Guardian reports:

Completely leveling many buildings, and leaving many more unfit for living, the quake and its aftershocks have left an estimated 100,000 people in Sichuan province homeless.

Not all of the displaced have been lucky enough to secure a Red Cross tent. A photo gallery from China Daily shows quake victims living on the street or in cars.

In remote areas like Lushan and Baoxing counties – close enough to the epicenter to be seriously damaged, but too far for relief to be easily distributed – victims were becoming desperate as food and medicine supplies dwindled on Monday. The South China Morning Post reports:

Residents of isolated Baoxing county were relieved when rescuers reached them, but they are still struggling for necessities.

The roads connecting Baoxing and Lushan county, another badly hit area, were repaired on Sunday night, but landslides are making the journey difficult.

It can take up to six hours to make the 40-kilometre trip.

The hilly terrain also makes it difficult for helicopters to land and one had to abandon its mission due to strong winds.

Despite the victims’ desperation, Daily Telegraph reporter Tom Phillips met with much generosity during his travels in the quake zone, including Lushan:

Humbled by how much food & water we were offered by #Sichuan #earthquake victims who had lost their homes & relatives.

— Tom Phillips (@tomphillipsin) April 23, 2013

A report from Lushan yesterday also told of the kindness of quake victims, noting a convivial atmosphere amongst some of those most affected by the damage. From the Wall Street Journal’s China Real Time blog:

Given what they had gone through, almost everyone we came across was in surprisingly good spirits, clearly lifted by a sense of camaraderie. Walking through the rubble we came across people playing cards and laughing over dinner. At the temple, kids ran around playing, and several groups insisted we share their food.

While some reporters were met amiably, the Global Times reports that others only added to the chaos:

While a doctor surnamed Chen of West China Hospital conducted the [earthquake counseling] session, nearly 40 reporters swarmed around her podium and delayed the class from starting.

At one point, the incessant flashes of over 30 photographers was enough for one student, who stood up in anger and shouted, “We can’t calm down with all these journalists’ questions and flashes cameras going off!”

Certainly, loss-of-home and lack-of-food add additional trauma to the distressed quake victims. More disturbing though, is the abundance of stories of lost family members. AFP has a video interview with a man who lost his only son - and with him all hope. The South China Morning Post tells of a villager who lost his brother when a kiln collapsed, and the cultural and biological importance of quickly burying the bodies of the deceased:

Grieving relatives had no time to prepare mourning clothes or a proper burial service for 40-year-old quake victim Duan Jihong.

The best Duan Jigui could do was wash his brother’s body after retrieving it from the debris of a collapsed kiln and dress it in new clothes before burying him in a donated coffin.

“We have no other way,” Duan Jigui, 49, said. “The body attracted insects.”

Villagers from Wangjia village in Longmen township carried the coffin up the mountain in morning drizzle for burial yesterday. Duan Jihong’s son burned paper money while villagers watched silently.

As the ground began to shake last Saturday, some recalled the severe devastation of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Of all those who lost loved-ones last weekend, the most tragic stories are of the families who underwent the same horror five years ago. The South China Morning Post tells of  a mother who lost both her children to the movement of the Longmenshan Fault:

Life has not been fair for 50-year-old Lu Jingkang, who lost her teenage daughter in the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that hit Yaan on Saturday. Barely five years earlier, she lost her son in the other catastrophic Sichuan earthquake, in Wenchuan.

“God has been too harsh on me, way too harsh,” Lu told the Yangtse Evening Post on Sunday.

The two deadly earthquakes that struck Sichuan, just 85 kilometres apart from each other, have now left Lu childless.

The South China Morning Post also has news of a girl who, born in the aftermath of the 2008 earthquake, perished in the 2013 earthquake:

Four-year-old Wang Yanxia was considered lucky and a gift to her family when she was born in the wake of the magnitude-8 earthquake that hit Wenchuan, Sichuan, in 2008. Now her family is struggling to face the reality of her death in the Yaan quake.

Falling debris hit Yanxia as she rushed out of the house when the magnitude-7 quake struck Lushan county on Saturday. She died that day at a hospital in Yaan, news portal Cheng.cn reported on Wednesday.

“At first we thought that if she managed to survive the Wenchuan earthquake, she would be blessed her entire life. But she did not escape the catastrophe after all,” her mother said, recalling how her daughter loved drawing and dancing.

More uplifting than the Lu and Wang stories are those of new lives coming out of the rubble. Xinhua reports on babies born in the wake of the Ya’an quake:

Mothers in quake-hit areas in southwest China named their new-borns with characters like “luck” and “quake” to mark their births after the devastating earthquake.

Over a dozen babies have been delivered in make-shift tents or even in the open air since the 7.0-magnitude quake jolted Ya’an City in Sichuan Province on Saturday, leaving over 200 people dead or missing and injuring hundreds of others.

Two babies have been named “Zhensheng,” meaning “born in quake,” including one delivered in Ya’an and another in Lushan County near the epicenter, both shortly after the quake that struck at 8:02 a.m..

The Wall Street Journal points to video footage of one such birth:

Other encouraging stories tell of those who made it through the disaster, despite all odds. From the Global Times:

Huang Yurong has no idea how she managed to lift a 100 kilogram object that had fallen on her son during Saturday’s earthquake.

After the family members ran to safety they realized Huang’s son, Ling Li, had been buried under the ruins of their collapsed house. When Huang realized her adult son was missing she went back into the rubble.

“Mom will get you out,” she yelled to her son as she made her way to his side, without regard for her own safety and the danger of further collapse, the Chengdu-based West China City Daily reported on Sunday, without providing the age of Huang or Li.

The mother managed to lift the slab, which the paper did not identify, and got her son to safety.

As Ya’an natives struggle to cope with the damage and death wreaked by the quake, they are receiving emotional, spiritual, and physical support from across China. China Daily has a photo gallery of Buddhist monks who have raised 2.35 million yuan in relief funds at a prayer meeting in Beijing, and China Daily has photos of candlelight vigils throughout China. China View reports on foreign students from Chengdu who traveled to remote Lushan county to volunteer in relief efforts:

Click here to view the embedded video.

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“Grandpa Wen” famously spoke to Sichuan earthquake victims on the ground. Some saw his hands-on approach as a brilliant publicity stunt. (artist unknown)

我来晚了。 (Wǒ lái wǎn le.): I’m late.

A catchphrase of former Prime Minister Wen Jiabao. He first apologized for the time of his arrival to Tongchuan, Shaanxi Province after a gas explosion in a coal mine there on November 28, 2004 killed 166 people. From then on, netizens noted Wen’s every apology for being late at the scenes of natural and man-made disasters: a southern snow storm in January 2008, the devastating Sichuan earthquake of May 8, 2008, and the site of the Wenzhou train crash stand out in the public memory. Instead of praise for “Grandpa Wen,” netizens often think Wen is feeding the people and the media a clever line. They believe he lacks real concern for the plight of the Chinese people.

See also movie star.

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Despite the volunteers’ enthusiasm, their efforts have become controversial as most zones near the epicenter, where food, water, electricity and telecommunications are scarce, are cut off by disrupted roads.

The Guangzhou-based Nandu Daily reported Sunday that nearly 300 volunteers, mostly college students, who arrived in Longmen township, did not even bring food and water for themselves, not to mention tools for rescue efforts.

[…] Han Han, a popular writer who volunteered his services following the Wenchuan earthquake, wrote that the help provided by volunteers may actually hamper rescue efforts.

“Volunteers should leave the first few days after the disaster to relief workers because what they can do at the scene is quite limited,” he wrote.

The Financial Times’ Leslie Hook spoke to a team leader in the official relief effort, who complained that “the volunteers have created a certain kind of disaster themselves [….] It seems like there are more volunteers than there are earthquake victims. They have no place to sleep, and nothing to eat, and most of them have no experience or training [….] For some people, the biggest help that they can do for disaster areas is go back where they came from safely.”

Similarly, the BBC’s Damian Grammaticas quoted a military officer’s frustration at “all those volunteers bringing two packets of instant noodles each blocking the roads.” The Economic Observer’s Zhang Xiaohui suggested that the volunteers were not the main problem in terms of traffic, but had few kind words for them in any case.

The situation is made worse by the number of “disaster gawkers” (观灾者) who like to refer to themselves as “volunteers” (志愿者), despite the fact that they’ll often do more harm than good and leave rubbish behind when they move on.

The Sichuan Transportation Bureau (四川交通局) has blamed private vehicles for clogging the roads, in fact we’ve seen that it has more to do with large trucks and rescue vehicles. In addition, due to the earthquake occuring in a mountainous area, the PLA’s air rescue capabilities are limited.

As no-one expected Lushan to be hit by a quake, no emergency transportation contingency plans were ever put in place. The blind zeal of many volunteers who consider themselves better qualified to offer assistance than the army or the government – for example a well-known philanthropist surnamed Chen ["Nice Guy" Guangbiao] – also complicate the situation. Still, the main cause of the transport bottleneck in Lushan county is that the region’s transport capacity is limited.

The same issues have also led China to decline offers of help from abroad. Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a press briefing on Monday that “we currently don’t need foreign teams due to the narrow roads and limited space in the area,” and denied state media reports that a 200-strong Russian team was on its way. The Russians’ reported involvement had offered a curious contrast with Beijing’s refusal of Japanese assistance, amid renewed tension over visits to the Yasukuni Shrine war memorial.

Some have cast doubts on the authorities’ motives for barring volunteers, however. From Verna Yu at South China Morning Post:

Huang [Qi] believed he was barred from helping because of his imprisonment for “illegal possession of state secrets” after he investigated the collapse of school buildings in the 2008 quake. He and others blamed corruption for the destruction of the shoddily built structures.

Huang also campaigned on behalf of parents who wanted to sue authorities over the crushing to death of their children when the schools collapsed.

[…] Many activists believe officials are preventing individuals from helping because they fear they will expose corruption, like in 2008, and embarrass the local government. Huang said he and his associates were driving on country roads and would not have hindered other traffic. He said he wanted to give money directly to quake victims, so that it could not be embezzled.

Fears that financial donations would go astray have been widespread, possibly adding to the stream of volunteers. Offbeat China has posted images of messages scrawled on donated banknotes, such as “fuckhead, I dare you to graft this.” For more on this disillusionment, see ‘Disaster Shows Faith in China’s Red Cross Badly Shaken‘ at CDT.

Some volunteers did at least offer a break from the post-disaster diet of instant noodles. From Zhuang Pinghui at South China Morning Post:

Even locals who were affected by the quake have come out to help those in greater need. Four construction site workers were cooking batches of porridge to give to the hungry.

“Around 400 people have eaten the porridge. It is very popular when all that everybody had was instant noodles,” Liu Xiyi said.

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Many Chinese traveled to Sichuan to volunteer. Charities were inundated with donations. By February 2011, the Red Cross Society of China, a member of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, had received about $650 million in donations from within China and abroad for that quake, according to a report on the Web site of the official China News Service.

But the Red Cross became a pariah in the eyes of many Chinese after a scandal two years ago that centered on Guo Meimei, a 20-year-old woman who had posted photographs of herself online posing next to Italian sports cars, hoarding Hermès handbags and flying in business-class cabins. She said on her microblog that she was the “commercial general manager” at the Red Cross. People speculated about whether she had gotten her title by being the mistress of a top Red Cross official. She became the most talked-about subject on the Chinese Internet during those months, and her name invariably comes up in discussions of philanthropy here.

As a result, Chinese are saying on microblogs and other forums that people who want to give to current relief efforts in Sichuan should, without a doubt, avoid the Red Cross.

[…] The Red Cross Society of China declined to comment for this article. Zhao Baige, an executive vice president at the organization, told a reporter from Southern Metropolis Daily that there were may online critics who had deep-rooted misunderstandings and prejudices toward the group.

China Real Time’s Josh Chin reported the immediate and visceral backlash against the Chinese Red Cross on Saturday, when its announcement on Sina Weibo that it had dispatched an investigation team was met with thumbs down and worse:

“Little Red, you’ve really lost the people’s hearts,” read one of the few responses suitable for print on the website of a family newspaper.

“Investigate your [expletive] you gang of swindlers,” went another.

Why so much vitriol?

Unlike most Red Cross organizations, which operate independently of government, the Chinese Red Cross has close ties to the state. For several decades after the Communist victory in 1949, it was an actual government agency, operating essentially as a branch of the Ministry of Health. Although now separate from the ministry, it maintains active links with health officials and is one of only a handful of organizations officially allowed to solicit contributions from Chinese citizens.

For much of its existence, that semi-official status gave the Chinese Red Cross clout that Red Cross branches in other countries lacked, but it has also helped make the organization a target for public anger over official corruption.

Though photos have shown Red Cross collection boxes sitting empty, the organization had in fact collected over 50 million yuan by Saturday evening, according to Global Times. But as the newspaper’s Chen Tian reported, more public donations were flowing through new platforms set up by China’s Internet giants:

Sina Micro-charities, which was launched this February, had initiated 29 quake relief projects with the help of institutions and individuals for the hardest-hit city of Ya’an by Sunday morning, according to a notice posted on the platform late Sunday.

The Sina Micro-charity projects, which allow the public to donate money with debit cards, credit cards or the online payment platform Alipay, have gathered nearly 80.4 million yuan ($13.01 million) from more than 60,000 Internet users.

Meanwhile, other Internet service providers offering online payment platforms, including Tencent and Alipay, have collected tens of millions of yuan in donations for the quake-hit areas.

[…] Wang Zhenyao, president of Beijing Normal University’s One Foundation Philanthropy Research Institute, told the Global Times that the [Sina] platform offers information in a way that allows donors to know where their money is going.

“The purpose of each micro-charity project is clear and highly targeted, and the project timelines track how the funds are utilized,” Wang said. “This reassures people and makes them want to donate.”

Disillusionment with the fate of money sent to the mainland has spawned an anti-donation campaign in Hong Kong, with participants seeking to block a proposed HK$100 million package from the government. Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying has insisted that although he “supports all national measures against graft […] financially, the Hong Kong society should donate to the people affected” on a basis of “love, care and support for compatriots.” But in an online poll at South China Morning Post, 92% opposed the donation, even if conditions are imposed to prevent misuse. Online polls are unscientific and notoriously easy to manipulate, but there were many expressions of opposition through other channels as well. From Emily Tsang and Joshua But at South China Morning Post:

Such reluctance comes in sharp contrast to the generosity that followed the Sichuan earthquake five years ago, when the government gave HK$10 billion, and non-government groups raised HK$15 billion from the public.

[…] The Democratic Party and the Civic Party said they would decide today whether to support the government’s proposed donation. Democratic Party chairwoman Emily Lau Wai-hing said she received many objections about the funding plan.

“I am deeply sorry and feel sympathy for the disaster … but the mainland lacks a system rather than money. I do not wish to see the money fall into the pockets of corrupt officials,” Lau said.

[…] “HK$100 million could be used in many better ways to help Hong Kong, rather than wasting it on the mainland bureaucracy,” one user wrote. Another said: “I doubt that even one dollar in a 100 would really go to helping the victims.”

Senior journalists familiar with mainland affairs also reminded Hongkongers to think twice before donating. They said some of the money raised five years ago was wasted on fancy meals and building unused roads. A HK$2 million secondary school was built with donations but torn down after 11 months to make way for luxury flats.

Updated at 2:00 PST, April 23: On Twitter, SCMP’s George Chen clarifies that funds used for the demolished school were returned:

HK gov confirms a HK-funded school after 2008 #earthquake was removed by local gov. Built in 2010 w/ HK$2M donation. Sichuan gov returned $.

— George Chen (@george_chen) April 23, 2013

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Prime Minister Li Keqiang at the site of the Sichuan earthquake. (CCTV)

Sichuan Earthquake: At least 188 are dead and over 11,000 injured after Saturday morning’s 7.0-magnitude earthquake, which struck Lushan County in the mountainous southwestern province of Sichuan.

• Fan Jiyue (范继跃): Lushan County Party Secretary Fan Jiyue was seen inspecting the disaster zone with Prime Minister Li Keqiang [zh]. Savvy netizens, quick to catch signs of luxurious lifestyles in these photo opportunities, noticed Fan’s distinct watch tan, then dug up older photos of him wearing a watch on the same arm. Fan is likely hoping to avoid the ridicule which drove Watch Brother out of office last fall. Netizens are calling Fan the “clever county Party secretary” (机智的县委书记) and “Taking-off Watch Brother” (脱表哥).
• Lushan County Party Secretary (芦山县委书记)
• Li Keqiang+put on a show (李克强+作秀): Li Keqiang was photographed yesterday eating a simple breakfast in a tent near the epicenter of the earthquake [zh]. Bedraggled from a busy night, he repeatedly emphasized to reporters that saving lives is his “number-one” priority right now.” Former prime minister Wen Jiabao was notorious for acting like this to demonstrate his concern for victims of natural and man-made disasters earning him the nickname “movie star.”
• prime minister+movie star (总理+影帝)
• Three Gorges+Sichuan earthquake (三峡+四川地震): Many people believe the Three Gorges Dam is to blame for the severe earthquakes which struck Sichuan this weekend and in 2008. Geologist Yang Yang, quoted in the Financial Times, says that this is a possibility, but that it is too soon to tell.

Alternate Renderings of Xi Jinping (习近平 Xí Jìnpíng): All based on sound.
• West Gold-peace (西金平 Xī Jīnpíng)
• Western Jin Peace (西晋平 Xī Jìn Píng): The Western Jin Dynasty ruled from 265-420 CE.
• Fully-washed Peace (洗尽平 Xǐ Jìn Píng)
• Whistle-clean Peace (洗净平 Xǐjìng Píng)
• Wash into Bottle (洗进瓶 Xǐ Jìn Píng)
• Sikkim Bottle (锡金瓶 Xījīn Píng)

All Chinese-language words are tested using simplified characters. The same terms in traditional characters occasionally return different results.

Browse all of CDT’s collected sensitive words in this bilingual Google spreadsheet.

CDT Chinese runs a project that crowd-sources filtered keywords on Sina Weibo search. CDT independently tests the keywords before posting them, but some searches later become accessible again. We welcome readers to contribute to this project so that we can include the most up-to-date information. To add words, check out the form at the bottom of CDT Chinese’s latest sensitive words post.

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Post tags: 2013 Sichuan earthquake, censorship, earthquakes, Fan Jiyue, Internet censorship, Li Keqiang, Ministry of Truth, natural disasters, Sensitive Words Series, Sichuan, Three Gorges Dam, weibo, Wen Jiabao
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The separate visits by at least four cabinet members, including the deputy prime minister, Taro Aso, were the first to the Yasukuni Shrine by members of the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, an outspoken nationalist who took power in December. The large shrine of Japan’s native Shinto religion honors the nation’s war dead, including several who were executed as war criminals after World War II. This has made it a target of condemnation in China and South Korea, both of which suffered greatly as a result of Japan’s empire-building efforts in the early 20th century.

The Japanese news media said that while Mr. Abe refrained from visiting the shrine to avoid provoking China and South Korea, he did send a ritual offering of the branch of a cypress tree, used in traditional Shinto ceremonies. Sunday was the start of a three-day spring festival at the shrine when conservative politicians frequently visit and offer prayers.

[…] Before Mr. Abe took office, there had been widespread concern that he might say or do something to outrage victims of Japanese wartime aggression. But Mr. Abe has so far acted with restraint, apparently eager to avoid isolating Japan in the region. He has responded calmly to almost daily intrusions by Chinese ships into waters claimed by Japan around disputed islands in the East China Sea.

In response, South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se cancelled what would have been the two countries’ first ministerial meetings under their new governments, while Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that Japan must face its history and respect its neighbors’ feelings. Her comments echoed those of ministry spokesman Hong Lei, who said last month in anticipation of a possible shrine visit by Abe himself that “only when Japan faces up to the past can it embrace the future.”

At Bloomberg last week, author Pankaj Mishra grappled with Japan’s “extreme case of forgetfulness, ignorance and self-absorption,” while acknowledging the “absurdity” and “hypocrisy” of the Allies’ post-war Tokyo Trials.

[…] Yushukan [the museum at the Yasukuni Shrine] takes too many liberties with historical accuracy. It presents the invasion of Manchuria in 1931, which inaugurated a particularly deranged phase of Japanese militarism, as an act of “legitimate self-defense.” The Rape of Nanjing in 1937 is referred to as the Nanjing Incident in which “Chinese soldiers in civilian clothes” were “severely prosecuted.”

[…] Nothing undermines this litany of half-truths, omissions, suppressions and outright falsehoods than the simple failure to acknowledge that Japan’s pan-Asianist crusade, which claimed more than 10 million lives in China alone, came as a calamity to most Asians.

But it is a bit unfair to expect Japan’s conservative rulers today to periodically denounce their country’s short-lived empire and produce apologies on demand to its former enemies while British Tories propose to celebrate their imperial past in revised history textbooks.

[…] As Japan searches, still confusedly, for a new identity within Asia, it may come to appreciate, as Jeff Kingston, a close observer of contemporary Japan, writes, “the potential benefits of reassuring past enemies.” But how will the effort at reconciliation with victims of Japanese aggression shape official memories of Japan’s war in Asia?

A Hefei restaurateur named Xu recently confronted Japan’s war history in his own way by naming his restaurant’s toilets ‘Yasukuni Shrine’. From Amy Li at South China Morning Post:

A diner who recently ate at the restaurant ended up taking photos of the newly named restroom and posting them on Weibo, where they went viral and triggered mixed reactions.

“All restrooms in China should adopt this name,” wrote a blogger.

Some others deemed the “patriotic” act too extreme.

Wang Kaiyu, a researcher at Anhui’s Academy of Social Sciences, said Xu’s actions were understandable, but not “appropriate.”

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Post tags: 2013 Sichuan earthquake, earthquakes, Japan, Japan relations, natural disasters, rape of nanking, Shinzo Abe, south korea, World War II, Yasukuni Shrine
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The death toll climbed steeply to as high as 72 by early afternoon, as premier Li Keqiang and over 2,000 soldiers scrambled to the quake zone. From Jane Perlez and Chris Buckley at The New York Times:

The state-run news agency, Xinhua, said there were “serious collapses” of homes, with many old houses in Lushan destroyed. The Sichuan news service said that an official there said many people had been trapped in the collapsed homes.

[…] The memories of the devastating earthquake in May 2008 in which poorly constructed school buildings collapsed and killed thousands of students caused extra nervousness that Saturday’s quake would result in a much higher number of fatalities.

The earthquake in 2008 prompted a massive official relief effort, and a passionate outpouring of volunteer help. But some quake-stricken residents and observers faulted the government for putting rescue efforts in the wrong places, or failing to muster the equipment needed to lift victims from under slaps of concrete and brick. Instead, many troops and rescuers clambered over the rubble with sticks and spades. This time, the government appears intent on avoiding any accusations of laggardness, even if the quake is less destructive than the one in 2008.

An uncomfortable echo of the school collapses in 2008 appeared on Sina Weibo, in a photograph purportedly showing a kindergarten destroyed by Saturday’s quake:

A picture showing kindergarten shattered in Lushan County, Ya’an City, Sichuan Province. twitter.com/Edourdoo/statu…

— edde (@Edourdoo) April 20, 2013

The disaster took place on the Longmenshan fault, source of the 2008 earthquake. From the U.S. Geological Survey:

Four events of Mw6.0 or greater have occurred within 200km of the April [20] event in the past 40 years, including the May 2008 Sichuan earthquake and a subsequent aftershock. The northwestern margin of the Sichuan Basin has previously experienced destructive earthquakes. The magnitude 7.5 earthquake of August 25, 1933, killed more than 9,300 people, while the May 12, 2008 killed 69,197.

Tea Leaf Nation’s Liz Carter watched as news of the quake spread on Sina Weibo, where local reporter Chen Ying won acclaim for abandoning her wedding to cover the disaster, still in her white dress.

Some users commented on official updates to add information. “The earthquake was felt in Guizhou,” wrote one. Another added, “I was sleeping in Changsha [Hunan province]; it woke me up.” Others simply offered prayers for the safety of those affected. Even Xinhua’s official Weibo presence extended a heartfelt wish: “We pray together for the safety of those in the disaster area.”

[…] Ran Wang, an investor and businessman, posted his own hopes for the aftermath:

Hopes for the Ya’an Earthquake: 1) Rescue efforts are timely and orderly, keeping deaths and injuries as low as possible 2) media are permitted to report freely, and there is no censorship, cover-ups, or control, the rights of the people and society to be informed during natural disasters is respected; 3) NGOs are allowed to actively help in accordance with clear regulations and under third-party supervision, official charity organizations are not given the opportunity to steal money.

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THE ecology of the Tibetan plateau, noted the Ministry of Land and Resources two years ago, is “extremely fragile”. Any damage, it warned, would be difficult or impossible to reverse. But, it went on, the China National Gold Group, a state-owned company, had achieved “astonishing results” in working to protect the environment around its mine near the region’s capital, Lhasa. On March 29th at least 83 of the mine’s workers lay buried under a colossal landslide. Its cause is not yet certain, but critics of Tibet’s mining frenzy feel vindicated.

[…] Foreign reporters are rarely allowed into Tibet, least of all to cover sensitive incidents. The official media have avoided speculation about any possible link between the landslide and mining activities in the area. They say the landslide covered a large area with 2m cubic metres of rubble. By the time The Economist went to press, 66 bodies had been pulled out by teams of rescuers with sniffer dogs. The high altitude and lack of oxygen made rescue work hard.

A deputy minister of land and resources, Xu Deming, said preliminary investigations had shown that the landslide was caused by a “natural geological disaster”. Fragments of rock left behind by receding glaciers are being blamed, though officials do not explain why the workers’ camp was set up so close to such an apparent hazard.

The Dharamsala-based Central Tibetan Administration has suggested that the disaster “could be a result of the aggressive expansion and large-scale exploitation of mineral in the Gyama Valley—a man-made phenomenon rather than just a ‘natural disaster’.” State media reports on Friday, on the other hand, reiterated the initial conclusion that it was an act of nature. At chinadialogue, Gabriel Lafitte was dismissive of this official explanation:

With indecent haste, the subsidiary of state-owned China Gold International that operates the Gyama mine announced that the landslide was natural. This rush to excuse themselves of culpability is not backed by any scientific monitoring of earthquake activity.

The fact is that this huge mine, despite extremely steep mountainous terrain, is open cut, avoiding the expense of tunnelling. The walls of an open pit mine are prone to collapse, especially in a young and unstable land such as Tibet which is still rising.

The mining company took a calculated cost-cutting risk, and the mine workers paid the price. Open pits mean much blasting to loosen rock, a risky strategy. Now the mine, if it is to operate as planned for the coming seven decades, will have to go underground.

[…] CGI and its parent China Gold Group are in a tight spot. If the landslide is to be passed off as natural, it makes highly questionable the capacity of mine waste tailings dams to withstand earthquakes and debris flows, and the many extremes of climate at an altitude close to 5,000 metres. If, on the other hand, the landslide was not natural, but due to cost cutting, cavalier blasting, and a desire for quick profits, CGI’s corporate strategy is in tatters.

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At The New York Times, Edward Wong summed up the sensitive social and environmental issues surrounding the mine, from which a leaked propaganda directive issued on Saturday warned domestic media away:

Ethnic tensions have played into the outrage over mining. Most of the mines in Tibet belong to large state-owned enterprises based in eastern China, and they mostly bring in ethnic Han managers and workers, shutting Tibetans out. Of the 83 miners buried by the Gyama avalanche last week, only two were Tibetan, according to official news reports.

Environmental concerns, though, have dominated. Scientists have documented significant problems brought by the ravages of the Gyama mine, which belongs to China Gold International Resources Corporation, a company based in Vancouver, British Columbia, that is a unit of the state-owned China National Gold Group.

A paper published in 2010 by Science of the Total Environment, a journal, discussed the impact of mining activities on the surface water in the valley, including on streams that feed the Lhasa River. The researchers found elevated concentrations of six metals in the surface water and streambeds in the middle and upper reaches of the valley. These “pose a considerably high risk to the local environment,” according to a summary; meanwhile, pools of heavy metals were “a great potential threat to downstream water users.”

Establishing the mine at Gyama resulted in the relocation of nomads who had roamed the valley and grazed their animals there. The forced settlement of nomads is a policy that Communist Party officials have been pushing for years in many parts of Tibet, despite the widespread resentment it causes.

chinadialogue, meanwhile, highlighted its own article from 2011 reporting local Tibetans’ protests at the mine’s environmental impact, and warning of the area’s seismic instability.

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Rescue work was later suspended after geological experts found four cracks with lengths of more than 600 meters on the mountain top, posing risks of a subsequent landslide.

Rescuers were asked to retreat to the safe zone and wait for monitoring and evaluation from relevant departments.

More than 4,500 rescuers and 200 machines were working at the site to find the buried miners, said a spokesman with the rescue headquarters.Intermittent snow at the site, however, was hampering rescue efforts,

Another Xinhua report focused on the mine’s sole survivor, Zhao Linjiang, who was in Lhasa City when the landslide struck.

On Friday, he received a confusing call from his boss, who asked him to return immediately. On his way back to work, Zhao tried to call his relatives who also worked at the mine, but nobody answered.

When he got back to the mine, he found that it was no longer there. Instead, there was a mile-long pile of rocks in the place of the workers’ camp, and 83 workers, including his 23-year-old brother Zhao Malin and six other relatives, were nowhere to be found.

[…] Zhao said his phone rings about 40 to 50 times a day, mostly calls from the families of his co-worker relatives, who had once dreamt about bringing wealth to their families in the impoverished villages of Guizhou’s Xishui County.

Though life could be tough on the 4,600-meter-high plateau, the workers earned 8,000 yuan (1,288 U.S. dollars) to 9,000 yuan a month, roughly half the average annual income of people in their hometown, a victim’s family member from Guizhou told Xinhua.

The Hindu’s Ananth Krishnan surveyed online responses to the disaster:

While environmental groups and Tibetan exiled groups have long highlighted the adverse impact of mining project on the plateau’s ecosystem, Friday’s landslip also brought unusual — and unprecedented — criticism from Chinese bloggers, filmmakers and even singers. Television director Zhang Ronggui said he was “strongly opposed to the development of heavy industry and mineral resources in Tibet” in a widely forwarded post on Sunday on the Chinese Twitter equivalent Sina Weibo.

“It is the world’s highest and purest holy land, and I hope the government can leave a blue sky, clean water and white clouds for the next generation,” he wrote. His post, as of Sunday night, had been forwarded by more than 8,000 people.

Well-known singer, Zhang Yihe, in a message to her 339,000 fans, said: “I don’t understand why we have to dig up gold in areas that are above 4,000 metres. Why must we also build dams on rivers, including the Yarlung Zangbo? Why don’t we leave something for the next generation?” Other writers have also said the close relationships between local Communist Party officials and influential state-run companies have often resulted in environmental concerns and livelihood issues of local communities being ignored in mining projects, not only in Tibet but elsewhere in China.

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At about 6 a.m. on Friday, the disaster struck a workers’ camp of the Jiama Copper Polymetallic Mine in Maizhokunggar County, about 68 km from Lhasa, the regional capital.

By 8 p.m. Saturday, 3,500 rescuers and 300 large-scale machineries are working on the site, according to local authorities.

“The rescuers are conducting inch-by-inch search but they still cannot locate the missing miners,” said Wu Yingjie, deputy secretary of Tibet Autonomous Regional Committee of the Communist Party of China.

[…] Wu added that a one-meter-wide and 15-meter-long crack was formed at the mountain top, which indicated a possibility of subsequent disasters.

From the Associated Press:

Smaller landslides have already hampered rescue efforts, according to Xinhua, while damage to nearby roads slowed the delivery of heavy equipment. Many workers have reportedly been digging with bare hands while suffering from altitude sickness. Snow began to fall on Saturday afternoon, and temperatures of -3°C have interfered with sniffer dogs’ sense of smell.

A media directive from the Central Propaganda Department described the landslide as “natural”, but warned news organizations “without exception” not to “report or speculate on related sensitive issues.” Likely among these is the question of whether mining activity may have triggered the disaster. After a landslide killed 46 people in Yunnan in January, local suspicions fell heavily on a nearby coal mine despite an initial investigation which claimed that mining was not to blame for the disaster. 72 surviving villagers subsequently wrote to the State Council requesting that this conclusion be reexamined.

Another sensitive point is the ethnicity of the buried miners, only two of whom are local Tibetans. The rest are Han, mainly from nearby Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan provinces. Beijing has invested heavily in boosting Tibet’s economy, but the benefits have tended to flow to state-owned enterprises, and the jobs to incoming migrants, rather than to the local population.

Updated at 2:35 PST, March 31st: South China Morning Post reports the discovery of a second body, while the Associated Press provides more details on the mine operator:

The miners worked for Huatailong Mining Development. The company is a subsidiary of the Vancouver-based China Gold International Resources Corp. Ltd (TSX: CGG), whose controlling shareholder is the China National Gold Group Corp., a state-owned enterprise and China’s largest gold producer.

The disaster has spotlighted the extensive mining activities on the Tibetan plateau and sparked questions about whether mining activities have been excessive and destroyed the region’s fragile ecosystem. Criticisms, however, only flashed through China’s social media Saturday before they were scrubbed off or blocked from public view by censors.

[…] Btan Tundop, a Tibetan resident, noted the mining company’s dominance in the area in a short-lived microblog: “The entire Maizhokunggar has been taken over by China National Gold Group. Local Tibetans say the county and the village might as well be called Huatailong.”

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Crowds of survivors protested outside the local disaster relief headquarters on Sunday night, after it emerged that victims had been cremated without their families’ approval. Local authorities apologized, but explained that they were not equipped to deal with so many dead bodies at once. From Xinhua:

“Why can’t I see my child for the last time?” Luo Yuanju, a migrant worker who hurried home after she got the tragic news that she had lost 29 relatives in the landslide, told the Beijing News. “This cremation was done without our approval. Why couldn’t the authorities wait for one or two days?”

[…] Government authorities had cremated all the bodies by Sunday, triggering anger from the victims’ families. According to the tradition of the village, where dwellers are mostly members of the Yi ethnic minority, the bodies of the dead are usually buried instead of cremated.

Lei Chuying, deputy head of Zhenxiong county, said cremation orders were given due to consideration of epidemic prevention and people’s feelings.

“Many parts of the bodies were missing while the buried were dug out,” Lei said, “The painful scene might cause trauma among relatives.”

An official investigation quickly concluded that the landslide was an entirely natural disaster, but local authorities have still faced criticism over their lack of preparedness. From Global Times:

Jiang Xingwu, a geological expert in Yunnan, told a press conference on Saturday afternoon that the area’s steep incline of 35 to 50 degrees and the composition of the soil made it prone to landslides.

Jiang said that the earthquakes with magnitudes of 5.7 and 5.6 which hit neighboring Yiliang county in September 2012 were also a cause, and the continued rainy and snowy weather over the past month led to the saturation of the slope, with gravity eventually causing the landslide.

The People’s Daily, a flagship newspaper of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, Sunday questioned why there wasn’t any early warning given the prolonged rainy and snowy weather over the past month.

[…] Also of concern was the fact that a 2010 geological disaster prevention plan by the Zhenxiong government showed that the local government had compiled files for 184 hazardous sites including 29 major ones areas, but Gaopo village was not on the list.

In addition, some locals continued to voice suspicions that nearby mining activity was really to blame. From Xinhua:

Some villagers believe the landslide may have been triggered by a gas explosion, and they doubt the experts’ conclusion that the coal mine boundary was 500 meters away from the landslide.

“The mining area is right beneath the landslide,” a coal miner in Gaopo said, as quoted by media on Monday.

Witnesses told Xinhua they saw “earth and rocks sprayed up into the air” when the landslide occurred. At the same time, some other villagers said they had not been to the scene and only heard about the “explosion” from others.

[…] Wang Shijun, another person who lost family in the landslide, said a big crack appeared before the landslide. “Big enough to swallow a bull.”

However, some villagers said the crack was 1 meter wide and some said a half meter wide, while others said there was no crack.

Update: Global Times reports that 72 of the villagers have written to the State Council requesting a second investigation into the cause of the landslide.

Luo Yuanshou, the brother of a victim, initiated the joint letter and sent to the State Council on Wednesday. The villagers believe the Gaopo coal mine, which is 500 meters from the landslide scene, could have played a role in the landslide. Villagers wondered why the hillside remained stable following a 50-day snowstorm in 2008.

Luo told the Global Times that the villagers are demanding the State Council order the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety, the Ministry of Land and Resources and the China University of Geosciences to investigate the landslide. The original investigation “hastily concluded the landslide had nothing to do with the mine without even an on-site investigation of the mine. The hill was not that steep and is covered with vegetation,” said Luo.

Jiang Xingwu, who headed the original investigation, told the Global Times Wednesday that he stands by the results of his investigation, adding he understands that the villagers may want another opinion.

The preference for burial over cremation is not limited to the Yi: see ‘Henan Officials Commit a Grave Error‘ on CDT. Neither is Friday’s landslide the only apparently natural disaster for which human activity has been blamed: see ‘2008 Sichuan Earthquake Likely Man-Made‘.

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Post tags: coal mining, death, disaster relief, earthquakes, funerals, landslides, mining, natural disasters, State Council, Yunnan
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“I heard a sound like thunder, firecrackers or trucks dumping rocks at around 8 am. When I woke up and found some neighbors to follow the sound, we saw that the whole village had already been buried under the landslide,” Li Yongju, a villager in neighboring Zengjiazhai village, told the Global Times, adding that it had been snowing for 10 days.

The landslide hit the village around 8:20 am, burying the homes of 14 families. At least 46 people are believed to have been buried, among whom 19 were children.

Two injured people have been sent to a nearby hospital, and their conditions are stable after treatment.

“The landslide, which brought about several hundred thousand cubic meters of watery mud to the village, buried all of the houses there and created great difficulties for rescue efforts amid low temperatures,” said Sun Anfa, the leader of a local rescue team.

Xinhua reported on the rescue efforts, while Beijing Cream shared purported footage of the search for survivors:

Xi, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, said efforts must be made to resettle affected residents, prevent secondary disasters and successfully complete relief work and reconstruction so as to ensure stability.

[…] Snow continued. As of 11 p.m. Friday, rescuers were still searching for the missing, with the help of lamps and life detectors. They hoped to find any survivors despite bitter wind and low temperatures.

[…] “Many soldiers had even no time for their meals,” said Liu Guanneng, head of the fire fighting squad of Zhaotong City, at the scene.

[…] More than 1,000 soldiers, police, fire fighters and mine rescue workers had joined the search operation, said Feng Xuelan, secretary of the Zhenxiong county committee of the Communist Party of China.

At the South China Morning Post, Keith Zhai reported locals’ suspicions that heavy mining may have contributed to the disaster

The cause of the landslide remains unknown. Wu [Liang, a spokesman for the county government] said they occurred occasionally in the region, which was prone to earthquakes and heavy rains. But local residents said over-exploitation by coal miners caused soil erosion and destabilised hillsides.

[…] “The government should have monitored the geological hazards in the region long ago but they have failed to do so,” one resident said.

He said there was a major coal mine close to the buried village.

[…] County government official Xiong Changkai said the village had not been included in the county’s monitoring system because it had never experienced such landslides.

He also denied any link to over-exploitation by miners. “We have a precaution system for landslides, but this time it really was an accident,” Xiong said.

The affected Zhenxiong county borders Yiliang, the site of earthquakes and a subsequent landslide which killed at least 100 people last autumn.

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The Chinese earthquake that killed 80,000 people in May of 2008 most likely was not an act of God, a study released today has found. Rather, the culprit was probably a nearby hydro-electric dam whose construction and operation triggered one of the world’s worst disasters of the century.

The study by Fan Xiao, a Chinese geologist and chief engineer of the Regional Geological Survey Team of the Sichuan Geology and Mineral Bureau, arrived at this conclusion after an analysis of some 60 studies of the earthquake, conducted between 2008 and 2012.

In the aftermath of the deadly Sichuan-area, Wenchuan earthquake, many scientists suspected the Zipingpu Dam of causing the quake. Chinese authorities denied it, saying that the epicentre of the quake was too deep and on an unrelated fault and, therefore, not a case of reservoir-induced seismicity.

But Chinese authorities appear to have been wrong on both counts, says Mr. Fan.

The paper concludes (PDF):

The Zipingpu reservoir’s apparent triggering of the Wenchuan earthquake is an unprecedented case of reservoir-induced seismicity that presents huge challenges for scientific theory.

[…] Could widespread and largely unchecked dam-building in China’s southwestern region, where the stress field area is large and high risk, as indicated by the UN’s Global Seismic Hazard maps, trigger RIS events that could in turn trigger larger regional earthquakes? Could this case of the Wenchuan tectonic earthquake, induced by a reservoir, still be defined as a traditional case of RIS, or must the science of RIS be redefined to anticipate the full consequences of dam building?

These are the challenging and fundamental questions that the world’s scientists must confront as they investigate the important case of the Zipingpu reservoir and the Wenchuan earthquake of May 12, 2008.

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