A Chinese Reporter's Anger

By An Anonymous Reporter

The Epoch Times

A grieving mother looks back at the body of her child as she is escorted away from a temporary morgue after identifying the body at a sports centre, in the town of Hanwang in Sichuan Province. (Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images)

As we watch this natural disaster unfold it has slowly turned into one of man made calamities. The original feelings of sadness displayed by the disaster victims have now turned towards anger.

Faced with this unprecedented disaster, the authorities claim that they have made an all out effort in disaster relief. Each day increasing numbers of troops are being sent to help in the rescue operations, with scalable expansion. People are questioning why, if they have already claimed to have made an all out effort on the first day of rescue operations, then how is such an all out effort being broadened on the second and third day?

The Chinese authorities maintain tight control on all stories associated with this disaster. Only positive news reports are allowed to be released to guide the direction of public opinion. Critical and/or self-examination type stories are not permitted. As countless victims die while waiting quietly for rescue, the Chinese media start daily news broadcast swith the stories that are self-serving the authorities' interests. One after another, touching scenes are shown on TV—another child has been rescued.

Some people think the authorities have made significant progress on accurately reporting this disaster, with some factual news stories released. But, you would be wrong to think that this is due to a change in the authoritarian censorship policy. The scale of this disaster is so large that the censors have lost control and are unable to prevent negative stories from being published. The internet also plays an important role in disseminating information.

The police and the parents

Two days ago, all major newspapers reported the story of an armed policeman who had knelt down asking for another chance to save one more child. But throughout the entire disaster area, the most conservative estimates said that on that same day, there were over 50 tearful parents and relatives who had knelt down in front of rescue workers and begged them to save their loved ones. These types of bittersweet scenes have made many frontline reporters cry. Of course, the stories of the parents and relatives kneeling and begging for help were not reported in the official media.

The rescue operations are widespread. Most of the rescuers come from the People's Liberation Army. These soldiers arrived at the disaster areas with only their bare hands. They are young, brave and strong. However, these brave young men and women lack the appropriate training and tools to be most effective in saving lives. They are not professionals in disaster relief. Almost all of them are working with tears running down their faces. Reporters also noticed tears on their faces when they sang together during a break.

The Chinese censors have effectively kept the real stories of this disaster from reaching the people. But what are the quake victims thinking about right now? The first three days after the earthquake were the most important in respect to saving lives. This opportunity has now passed. It is estimated that for every minute that was wasted in the rescue operations, one or two buried victims could have died. Reporters have seen that although the troops and rescue teams have rushed to the disaster areas, the fact is that they are doing the rescue work very slowly. Many soldiers and rescue workers have never seen or faced collapsed buildings. Most of the time, they don't even know where to start. It is very difficult for the families who have lost loved ones in this disaster. The only thing they are able to do is to kneel down in front of the rescue workers and beg for their help.

As the people's emotions begin to stir, many have turned from sadness toward anger. At the same time, the news media have received orders to decrease the current emphasis on emotional scenes of panic stricken people, and focus on scenes of stability. The entire nation has been fooled by the government censored news media. Even the intellectuals and experts who were supposed to monitor the government's disaster relief programs also claimed to have put aside all prejudices and have stopped reflection and questioning, as if these ridiculous actions were supporting the Chinese communist regime in disaster relief.

Because of the effective censorship of the Chinese news media, people who have not experienced the earthquake believe that the regime has put forth its best effort. They believe that everything will be resolved for the better.

They do not know that this natural disaster has become a man-made disaster because of the regime's dismal attempt at disaster relief. The ones who see and feel the results of the disaster most directly are the quake victims. Even though frontline reporters understand what is really happening, they are not allowed to reveal this information to the public.

Refusal of rescue teams from Europe and the U.S.

There is a reason why it took almost three days to agree to accept foreign aid from Japan and why the Chinese authorities accepted Korea and Russia's aid, but not high-tech aid from the United States and other Western nations. Reporters have learned that within the Chinese leadership, a group of senior officials supporting "conspiracy theories" felt that, although accepting help from the Western countries might save more children and villagers, "national security" could be threatened because the world would see the incompetence of the Chinese authorities.

Reporters also learned of another reason: If the Chinese authorities allow United States and Western nations' rescue teams into the disaster zones, those individuals will reveal the details of the disaster once they return to their home countries. If they exposed backwardness and inflexibility in China's earthquake rescue system, it would hurt China's reputation. If such news reports got back to China, the Chinese people would lose confidence in their government.

Those Chinese government officials who put power and reputation above the lives of people are not concerned with those who have suffered. For them power remains safe in their hands as long as they control the media and have 1.3 billion people who "put aside all reflections and fully support their government." With their way of thinking and acting according to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ideology, they habitually feel that they have "reduced the deaths to a minimum."

It is quite easy to predict that next they will increase their popularity by hosting a large-scale performing arts show promoting their superiority and continue to maneuver the Chinese people into feeling touched by their efforts.

However, according to the information received by this reporter, it may not be easy to continue to fool quake victims and cover up the fact that the government was ineffective and incompetent during the rescue operations. Some victims' family members became very angry after learning from the internet that the government delayed the approval of foreign aid entry into China. Their eyes were full of fire. They looked as if they would kill anyone who challenged them.

No country in the world is able to bear the impact of an earthquake of such a large scale alone. Those who insisted on refusing to accept international aid are no different than murderers. I have to follow my conscience and say so!

Wen Jiabao's motion was rejected twice

The moderates at the top of the CCP leadership, led by Wen Jiabao, strongly promoted the acceptance of foreign aid. But Wen's motion was rejected twice at high-level meetings. Later, Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao made a compromise to accept Japan's offer of assistance. Their explanation to the leadership was that the friendship between the two countries still lingered after Hu's recent visit to Japan and that the Japanese are more disciplined and easy to be controlled. How sad it is! While quake victims are struggling at the edge of death and people are passionately supporting the government's relief program, the government itself is still hesitant about whether to accept foreign aid or not! Despite the fact that we've already missed the best opportunity to save the victims, the government still sets restriction on the scale of foreign aid. Furthermore, the United States' rescue team, the best and the largest in the world, is not allowed to enter China to help.

The information is still tightly suppressed right now. But what will happen once those who have been desperately watching their loved ones buried in the rubble get to know the news?

Even though the Japanese rescue team is allowed to enter the area, the authorities still have many misgivings. If the efficiency and speed of the well-equipped Japanese rescue team were much better than the Chinese rescue team that works next to them, then the victims would be very likely to question the government—Why didn't we allow them to come earlier? Why didn't we allow more foreign rescue teams with more advanced equipment to come?

It is understood that this is the problem most worrying the authorities. Therefore, a circular was issued recently that paid special attention to the reports of the foreign rescue teams' activities, especially their achievements.

Of course, the authorities successfully launched a campaign for people across the country "to go all out to trust its rescue efforts." Even if the number of dead in the disaster area was more than 50,000 or 100,000, their relatives' crying and skeptical reaction would be submerged by the "patriotic rave" once again.

These past several days, as I stood in front of the ruins of schools where many young children remained buried under the rubble, I thought to myself, "They are just unfortunate to be Chinese kids."

My tears are dry, but my anger is still palpable.

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