Submitted by: Ashley Breneman

The months leading up to the Olympic games in Beijing proved to be more problematic for the government than most of us were aware.  Pollution was just one of the issues that the government had to face and fix before the Olympics began in August.  While preparing for the arrival of millions of foreigners, the government was simultaneously trying to quietly deal with the aftermath of the May 12th earthquake in the Sichuan Province of China.

The earthquake, which was registered at 7.9 on the Richter magnitude scale, killed over 87,000 people. The initial response of the government was highly commended as they mobilized over 146,000 troops in just a matter of days.  This quickly changed after the alarming announcement of the number of schools that were crumbled during the earthquake, causing a large number of the casualties to be children.

Thousands of parents accused local officials of cutting corners when building the schools since nearby buildings had minimal damage compared to the flattened schools.  These schoolhouses have since been called “tofu-dregs schoolhouses” which mocks both the quality and quantity of the many poorly built schools that killed so many children the day of the quake.  The central government estimates that over 7,000 inadequately engineered schoolrooms collapsed during the earthquake.

At first glance, it seems extremely immoral and irresponsible that the government would approve of buildings that were not built to withstand a large earthquake.  With the standards that govern the design of buildings in the United States, an accident of this magnitude would never occur today.  However, there is one big difference between the US and China- the size of the population.  When constructing these buildings, the government had to decide between constructing highly sturdy buildings and educating the majority of the population.  They chose to educate as many as possible and hope that a “once in a lifetime” earthquake would never occur.  So did they do the right thing?  What would you have done if you had to make the same decision?

Regardless of the decisions made to construct the building, the real controversy lies in the reaction of the government following the earthquake.  Many officials promised to get to the bottom of the crisis and figure out who was to blame.  This is when the commonly talked about “government corruption” stepped in.  As the victims’ parents and news reporters continually demanded an answer of who was to blame, they were one-by-one harassed or detained by government officials.  I can’t say that I have an answer for how the government should respond, but silencing many heartbroken families will likely lead to more and more demonstrations against the government. Instead of hushing the many mourning families, the government should find a way to address their concerns and prevent a tragedy like this from occurring again in the future.

To read more about the Sichuan Province earthquake, see the following articles:

1.  In Year After Quake, China Sealed an Opened Door

2.  Loss, Mourning and Hope Amid the Rubble

3.  Wikipedia- 2008 Sichuan Earthquake