SICHUAN LETTER:Many blame the collapse of schools in last year's quake on corruption, but the real problem may be more systemic, writes CLIFFORD COONAN.
THOUSANDS OF red banners with bold white characters are placed strategically around the earthquake zone in Sichuan province.
In Mianyang, a large city where I go to get press accreditation to report in the zone, there are strong exhortations, in true Communist fashion, to roll up sleeves and help: “Reconstruction will take three years, but we will do it in two”; “The Great Earthquake spirit will help Mianyang develop quickest and best”; “Take the opportunity – spend your weekend rebuilding our home town”.
Stirring stuff, but then the earthquake is a major political issue in China, and the way Beijing has addressed aspects of the natural disaster says a lot about the country and about the ruling Communist Party.
Within hours of the earthquake last year, Chinese premier Wen Jiabao stood on the rubble with a loudhailer, urging those trapped below to hang on. The image of the Communist Party as a protector of the people and defender of their interests was cemented in people’s minds – it was a brilliant piece of propaganda.
In Beichuan, a town so close to the epicentre that it was almost completely destroyed, the government has built a large monument to victims and an earthquake museum, which will be officially inaugurated at 2.28pm tomorrow.
Here, again, are banners: “Shandong province is helping Beichuan”; “To the harmonious new Beichuan”; “Our love is gathered in Beichuan”; “Thank the Communist Party, Thank the Army, Thank the Motherland”.
Beichuan is a testament to a time when the world shared in China’s grief. A black banner says: “Show our deepest respect for the victims of the 5.12 earthquake.”
Again, the political is much in evidence. The only people in the ghost town are delegations of cadres visiting the site ahead tomorrow’s event.
Volunteers are putting down sods of turf and there is a large black tablet in the street with the date of the quake.
The monument stands at the foot of a landslide. It was from under piles of rubble like these that I heard cries for help from people who were still alive after days trapped in the debris, though there were no sounds from Beichuan middle school.
The schools issue refuses to die down. Last week, the Chengdu government gave its first official tally of schoolchildren who died in the quake: 5,335.
This seems low if you do the maths, given that the timing of the quake meant students were all at school, and most likely to be indoors. It is also half previous estimates of 10,000.
Children of school age comprise about 16 per cent of the population, and the government has already said about 14,000 schools were damaged by the earthquake.
Dealing with the schools issue has been less successful in propaganda terms than other aspects of the quake. Indeed, it has become the most politically sensitive post-quake issue.
Many of the parents of children who died in the earthquake say school buildings were shoddily built and collapsed too easily when the quake struck, while adjacent structures stood firm.
Calling for an investigation into what happened and wanting their questions about corruption answered, the parents have been harassed and locked up.
I was detained by the police for trying to report about the efforts of parents in Juyuan to find clarity.
In a way, it seems strange that some kind of inquiry has not been launched.
Corruption is seen as a serious threat to single-party rule, and the government has organised numerous campaigns against graft over the past couple of years.
It is unlikely that any investigation into corruption surrounding the schools’ construction would find evidence of a widescale conspiracy of graft, with vast numbers of officials skimming off material costs.
This certainly happened in some cases, but many engineers and architects say the schools collapsed for other reasons.
Schoolrooms had to be big to house a large number of children, often 50 to a classroom, and there was inadequate support. The buildings were built according to a building code that is no longer considered the right approach in earthquake zones.
Many schools were built in a hurry because education is extremely important in China and rising prosperity since 1979 meant people could afford to send their children to school for the first time.
China is a country in a hurry, and there is a feeling here that it has a lot of catching up to do with the rest of the world. This means some things happen too quickly.
An investigation into why the schools collapsed might not reveal evidence of corrupt officials, as many of the parents believe, but might show something more systemic: that they collapsed because of a culture of impatience that accompanies strong economic growth.