Natural disasters sometimes leave damaged governments among the rubble in their wake. But more than a week after a giant earthquake shook southwestern China, it is increasingly clear that the catastrophe has actually strengthened the leadership in Beijing.
The rapid reaction by China's government to the earthquake, along with media -- much of it state-run -- that has spotlighted the best aspects of that response to a newly unified public, have all helped enhance the central government's image as responsive and effective. The strong world-wide expression of sympathy, meanwhile, has quieted -- at least for now -- criticism of Beijing's policies in Tibet and elsewhere that had threatened to overshadow its hosting of the Summer Olympics in August.
While Chinese leaders clearly would have preferred to avoid such devastation and loss of life, the disaster has presented a political opening for the Chinese government, says Jing Huang, an expert on Chinese politics at Singapore's East Asian Institute. 'It provided them with the opportunity to show that they can care for the Chinese people and can handle this kind of crisis.'
The human cost from the magnitude-7.9 earthquake in China's Sichuan province -- the country's worst disaster in at least three decades -- continued to grow Wednesday, as the effort to rescue survivors drew toward a painful conclusion. The state-controlled Xinhua news agency reported the recovery of only one more survivor , a woman who had been trapped in a tunnel under a damaged hydropower plant. Hope for more such miracles was all but extinguished as the country passed its ninth day since the quake struck.
The official death toll hit 41,353 as of midday, with 32,666 still missing, the government said. More than 270,000 people have been injured, including nearly 26,000 who are still being treated.
China still faces years of costly rebuilding, and relocating many of the roughly five million people left homeless. In one glimpse of how big the challenge will be in some areas, officials announced Wednesday that they will rebuild Beichuan, a town that lost about 70% of its buildings and two-thirds of its 13,000 people, on an entirely new site.
Premier Wen Jiabao announced Wednesday that the government will cut spending on other items by 5% this year to make more funds available for the relief effort. The savings will help finance a 70 billion yuan, or roughly $10 billion, rebuilding fund.
The scope of the devastation has prompted a flood of international sympathy from human-rights groups and others that have been highly critical of Beijing. That has, at a minimum, halted the momentum of foreign censure that had been building since deadly antigovernment riots in Tibet in March and the harsh crackdown that followed.
In a sign of how dramatically the mood toward China has changed, the Tibetan government in exile, which Beijing accuses of fomenting unrest in Tibet, said Wednesday it had instructed its offices world-wide to organize prayer meetings and raise funds for victims of the earthquake. 'Tibetans across the world should shun staging demonstrations in front of the Chinese embassies' in the countries where they live, the Tibetan group, based in Dharmsala, India, said on its Web site.
The U.S. Congress adopted a resolution on Monday expressing condolences to the Chinese people for the tragedy and calling on President George W. Bush 'to respond to any requests for humanitarian assistance' made by the Chinese government.
Such shifts in attitude will likely prove temporary -- the Tibetan government in exile said its moratorium on protests will last 'at least till about the end of May.' And opinion within China could still turn against the central government if it falters in the enormous recovery tasks ahead. Furthermore, the unprecedented outpouring of public action in the aftermath of the disaster, while in tune with the government's efforts this time, could set a precedent that Beijing may come to regret, says Mr. Huang, the political analyst.
'People will be inspired to push for more open and more transparent and more responsible government' in the future, he says. 'That will have a far-reaching impact.'
But overall, the government's response appears likely to give a meaningful, and potentially lasting, boost in support for China's leadership, analysts said. That is a stark contrast to the Bush administration's handling of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which was widely criticized in the U.S. as slow and ineffective. The resulting public backlash helped send President Bush's approval ratings, already suffering from economic concerns and the war in Iraq, to their current lows.
In China's response last week, the most visible figure was Premier Wen, who has become a populist hero as a result of his actions. While Mr. Bush waited until two days after Katrina made landfall to travel to stricken New Orleans -- and then flew over it without landing -- Mr. Wen arrived in quake-battered Sichuan province within hours after the quake struck on May 12. He spent the next four days traveling from one devastated town to the next, often by helicopter when roads were blocked, comforting the victims and promising more help.
It took time -- in some cases days -- after the quake before large numbers of rescuers could overcome blocked roads and bad weather to reach some of the hardest hit areas. It wasn't until this past Tuesday evening that the government declared that rescuers had reached all 1,044 of the villages designated worst-hit in Sichuan. Teams airlifted into towns and cities near the epicenter last Tuesday, the day after the quake, often found themselves overwhelmed by the scale of the devastation and the number of casualties.
But overall, the government's massive relief effort -- involving more than 100,000 troops, paramilitary police, firefighters and others from across China -- has won plaudits from quake survivors and other Chinese citizens. State media has been filled with images of young soldiers and other rescuers at work. Mr. Wen -- whose trip was covered intensively by the Chinese state media -- has been followed by other top leaders, including President Hu Jintao, making much-publicized tours of the disaster zone in the days since.
Blame for any shortcomings has tended to land on local-government officials. In Dujiangyan, a tourist town near the epicenter, three local officials were fired for responding inadequately to the quake, according a government-run newspaper.
In the town of Wufu, parents of children killed in a school collapse held a demonstration Monday, saying that poor construction, not the earthquake, was primarily responsible for the deaths of their children. The buildings around the school withstood the temblor and remain standing.
'It's not the central government's fault. It's corrupt local officials,' said Bi Kaiwei, standing amid the rubble of the collapsed Fu Xing No. 2 Primary School, where his 13-year-old daughter was killed. 'We need to punish these guys.' Parents said local reporters came and interviewed them, but didn't report the story.
Beijing has been praised by press-freedom advocates for giving local reporters unprecedented leeway to report on the disaster in the first week. An array of officials have answered reporters' questions in daily news conferences and the government has been unusually forthcoming with answers on everything from casualty figures to acknowledging difficulties on the ground.
There are some signs it has tightened the reins in recent days. Officials appear to be trying to discourage reporting of events that could cast the government in an unfavorable light. And at least some people are afraid to speak out as a result. One man, picking up the body of a girl from a makeshift morgue near a collapsed middle school in the town of Hanwang, said: 'I don't want to say anything. It's like attacking the government. I'll get in trouble.'
The economic costs of the earthquake have so far been less severe than some had initially feared, largely because the worst-hit areas were relatively rural and generally lacked major industry. Li Rongrong, chairman of the state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, said on Wednesday that the earthquake caused at least 30 billion yuan in losses to the companies under his control -- mainly in power or other infrastructure sectors. That is a relatively small sum given the huge size of China's state-owned companies.