On Monday, May 12th, there was a magnitude 8.0 earthquake in the Sichuan province that left more than 88,000 people dead or missing. Foreign aid in the form of supplies began to arrive the night of May 15, but foreign rescue teams were not allowed into Sichuan until May 16, well past the critical post-72 hours in which it is most possible to still find people alive. The Chinese only chose to let in teams were from Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore and Russia. In the Chinese media, Chinese rescue teams were described as efficient and effective and the government was portrayed as openly welcoming international aid. In the foreign media, the coverage was not as plainly positive, describing Chinese rescue teams as unequipped and unprepared and the Chinese attitude towards foreign aid as selective and political. Still, the Chinese response to the earthquake did show increased openness and transparency, thus opening the door for future cooperation in international relief efforts.
Chinese Media Coverage
In the Chinese media, the government was praised for moving quickly after the earthquake. The China International Rescue Medical Team was airlifted by military aircraft to the hardest hit region within hours. Mobilization of People’s Liberation Army troops began within 14 minutes of and finished within 2 hours after the earthquake. The Air Force conducted its largest airlift of 11,420 troops and dispatched 100 (out of 400) of its military helicopters. Over 140,000 active-duty PLA, People’s Army Police personnel and militia were deployed in the following two weeks. The PLA was praised for its rapid reaction after the quake.
In the days following the earthquake, the Chinese Red Cross and army were the only rescue workers at the disaster areas. Although purportedly welcoming international aid, China stated that circumstances did not allow for it, citing current traffic problems. Once foreign teams entered, the Chinese media continually labeled them as the “first” in some regard, perhaps to emphasize that China was letting in foreign aid and also to give special honor to the countries being described. The Taiwanese Tzu Chi Foundation was called the “first force from outside the People’s Republic of China to join the rescue effort,” and Japan was described as the first team that China had accepted from a foreign country following the disaster. Later, Premier Wen Jiabao gave a hug to an American doctor and volunteers, saying he “was impressed that the first foreigners he saw providing help when he toured the province were Americans.” Xinhua news agency described Russia as “among the first to dispatch rescue and medical teams to China…also the first country to send humanitarian aid.” Russian President Medvedev was named the “first foreign head of state to visit China following the massive earthquake.” In the Chinese media, these descriptive “firsts” portrayed China as very welcoming and grateful for foreign aid.
Foreign Media Coverage
In foreign media, coverage of Chinese relief efforts was not as uniformly positive. Media revealed the PLA’s lack of equipment, experience and transport capabilities. Although thousands of PLA combat soldiers were dispatched extremely rapidly following the earthquake, soldiers did not reach some of the hardest hit towns and villages for two days. The first troops to reach the epicenter of the disaster did not arrive until 35 hours after the earthquake. Paratroopers could not land in the regions closest to the epicenter in the days immediately following the earthquake due to their helicopters being too small, too few, and lacking capabilities to lift heavy equipment and fly in high altitudes. The military is still largely dependent on old Soviet and French technology. Only two helicopters took off in the first 12 hours, both of which turned back due to bad weather, forcing troops to reach the most heavily affected areas on foot. Although the PLA mobilized very quickly, they arrived without proper equipment and heavy machinery, consuming precious time for many victims.
The foreign media also revealed Chinese attitudes towards receiving foreign aid as not as open as they seemed, but rather selective and political. China freely received supplies and monetary donations, with the top five monetary donors being Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, Germany and Macau. However, Beijing only chose to receive rescue teams from certain countries. British and Canadian rescue teams arrived in Hong Kong, but could not obtain visas or permission to enter. China accepted $1.6 million and relief supplies from the U.S., but also refused them entry into Sichuan. Rescue experts from the U.S., Pakistan, France, Philippines and Spain were allowed to help out by training Chinese workers but no teams were allowed in.
The Chinese chose to receive instead only rescue teams from Japan, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan, who all arrived on May 16th. Two Taiwanese rescue teams were allowed to directly fly into Chengdu. It is possible that the Chinese government allowed the Taiwanese in as the first people outside of mainland China to help as a confidence-building measure, showing members of a family helping each other out. Beijing also asked Japan to send 60 earthquake rescue experts on May 15th. A Chinese relief official said it was meaningful politically that China accepted foreign aid because it meant that they were opening up and merging with the international society in the area of rescue efforts, with “the biggest news [being] that Japanese are allowed into China. We’ve entered the big family of rescue efforts now,” he said. President Hu thanked Japan afterwards, saying that he “hope[d] to build on Sino-Japanese cooperation in this disaster and further deepen relations between the two countries.” Singapore and Russia both have good relations with China. Singapore enjoys visa-free access to China, and Russia is “one of China’s most important strategic and cooperative partners,” for they share many political, economic and cultural ties. These ties appear to not be based on finances alone, for the Russian government did not make any monetary donations and the Singapore government only donated 200,000 USD. South Korea’s relationship with Beijing is mostly based on trade. China could have been hoping to improve relations with South Korea in order to assist current FTA negotiations. From the perspective of foreign media, China seemed to only welcome close allies (Singapore, Russia) and those with whom they wanted to improve political ties (South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan).
China perhaps also saw the reception of foreign aid as a chance to improve their international reputation. One Chinese relief official described the selective invitations as “rescue diplomacy”, trying to secure international goodwill. The Chinese probably hoped to protect themselves against the international criticism that was received by Myanmar. Foreign media contrasted China’s crisis management to the way Myanmar handled the cyclone 10 days earlier, painting China as being much more open to foreign aid than Myanmar was.
Conclusion
The government’s decision to bar foreign rescue teams from entering immediately after the earthquake meant that irreplaceable time was lost. With the PLA’s lack of experience and advanced rescue equipment, they should have quickly welcomed the experienced and equipped foreign rescue teams. However, by the time the teams entered it was too late to find any survivors. The Russians were the only foreign rescue team to find a person alive. In addition, according to the Japanese, British, and Canadian rescue teams, the Chinese appeared unprepared to receive foreign aid. If China indeed did not prepare to receive foreign workers and did not let them in until it was too late to find any survivors, it seems their main reason for receiving teams was for political motives foremost rather than to rescue victims.
Although there are ways in which the crisis management of this earthquake was politicized and not as transparent as it could have been, China has improved in its openness regarding natural disasters. The freedom of press following the disaster was unprecedented. However, after a week of free and live coverage of disaster scenes, the government began to crack down on media once again. While still imperfect, the Chinese government has come a long way in its transparency in dealing with natural disasters, paving the way for future international cooperation in the areas of media, foreign aid and humanitarian relief.
Tiffany Lin (林美怡) is a 2008 Stanford in Government INPR Fellow in Taiwan.
