In the International Herald Tribune, Howard French writes about the political implications of the government’s reaction to the earthquake:
In many countries, after a tragedy of this magnitude, heads would be rolling as angry voices demanded that political leaders be held to account. This is particularly true given the widespread collapse of flimsy school buildings that killed thousands of students, or the equally grave, but largely unmentioned, general lack of preparation for a major quake in an area of known high risk.
Remarkably instead, China has managed to turn this tragedy into an event of self-affirmation, and even celebration of its reborn competence and confidence. This fact is captured in the spirit of Prime Minister Wen Jiabao’s pithy inscription on a school blackboard in Beichuan, one of the most devastated places of all. “Distress regenerates a nation,” he wrote.
The system’s ability to flip the mood, as if by switch, from sheer grief to nationalist pride, without ever passing through the intermediate step of anger, was accomplished through the unstinting use of propaganda, served up in unsubtle dollops that would have revolted people in many other places: endless focus on the doings of the leaders; saturation coverage of relief efforts replete with tear-jerking themes and melodramatic music; and slogans like “love makes us stand together,” solemnly intoned over and over.
Update: Meanwhile, Caijing editor Hu Shuli cautions against presuming too much about long-term change from the events surrounding the earthquake. She writes:
The old Chinese proverb “adversity builds a nation” came to mind while we grieved over the past two weeks. However, there is not necessarily a connection between disaster and a strong nation. What’s needed is to transfer emotion and reflection into action, and step beyond Herculean rescue and relief efforts to mega-scale reconstruction of the disaster zone and operations to prevent future disasters. Meanwhile, we must look for new ways to minimize the impact of national calamities.
In the face of these frequent disasters, of course, the Chinese government has taken action. The National Committee for Disaster Reduction was created, headed by a vice premier, and the 11th Five-Year Plan written with a comprehensive action plan. All this shows that disaster prevention and management are on China’s agenda.
Top leaders arrived at the earthquake scene within hours of the disaster. Their efforts left a deep impression. Soldiers and civilians alike literally threw themselves into the rescue effort with impressive selflessness.
But the response to the earthquake, as well as earlier ice storms, revealed a disaster management system that is ill-equipped to handle such widespread distress. While the country’s highly militarized rescue model is effective, we should not overlook its deficiencies. It would be wrong to equate strong government with “big government,” or to wax nostalgically about the supposed superiority of a command economy.
