Allegations of Shoddy School Construction Continue to Roil China
May 27th, 2008 • Posted in: NewsIn contrast to international coverage, Chinese press reports are confined largely to nonthreatening storylines, according to report
BEIJING
As China digs out from beneath the rubble of the mid-May earthquake, there is growing outrage over allegations that the lopsided death toll in schools was a result of construction shortcuts greased by corruption.
The New York Times reports that while the four-story Xinjian Primary School completely collapsed, killing hundreds of children, none of the nearby buildings were badly damaged.
Times reporters Jim Yardley, Jake Hooker and Andrew Revkin write: “There is no official figure on how many children died at Xinjian Primary School, nor on how many died at scores of other schools that collapsed in the powerful May 12 earthquake in Sichuan Province. But the number of student deaths seems likely to exceed 10,000, and possibly go much higher, a staggering figure that has become a simmering controversy in China as grieving parents say their children might have lived had the schools been better built.”
The Wall Street Journal reports that architects and engineers surveyed by the paper say many of the obliterated four- and five-story school structures should have been able to withstand the quake if they had been built properly.
The New Statesman reports that many in China are anticipating a day of reckoning soon as calls continue for an inquiry into allegations that graft fueled the disaster. “With 6,900 classrooms destroyed and thousands of schoolchildren dead, the government has announced an inquiry into school building standards, but angry, grief-stricken parents may demand more,” the New Statesman reports. “The one-child policy means that those who have lost a teenager, and are too old to have another child, have nothing left to lose.”
While the Chinese government has been unusually open about the earthquake aftermath — rescinding earlier edicts restricting coverage and instructing local officials to cooperate with reporters — the purported linkage of corruption to the school deaths remains off-limits, according to the Australian Age. The paper contends that most of coverage allowed on the Mainland has focused on “nonthreatening storylines — extraordinary rescues, miraculous survivals, heroism, heartbreaking losses and the laudable efforts of Premier Wen Jiabao to comfort and reassure victims that help was on its way.”
Sources: New York Times, May 24 — Wall Street Journal, May 24 — New Statesman, May 24 — Australian Age, May 24.
For more information, see: Related Newsline story, May 19 — Related Newsline story, Apr. 28 — Related Newsline story, Apr. 14 — Related Newsline story, Apr. 14 — Related Newsline story, Apr. 7.
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