![Wen called on 'officials at all levels to be at the frontline of fighting the earthquake' [AFP]](http://mwcnews.net/images/stories/China/1/2/3/4/5/6/7/government.gif "Wen called on 'officials at all levels to be at the frontline of fighting the earthquake' [AFP]") | | Wen called on 'officials at all levels to be at the frontline of fighting the earthquake' [AFP] |
The Chinese government has responded quickly to Monday's massive earthquake, sending tens of thousands of troops to help rescue efforts and setting up round-the-clock medical stations.
Wen Jiabao, China's premier, was on an aircraft to the worst-hit area less than two hours after the quake hit.
State-run Xinhua news agency quoted Wen as saying on the aircraft to Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan, that the government had called on "officials at all levels to be at the frontline of fighting the earthquake and lead the people in their rescue work". The toll from the 7.9 tremor that struck the country's southwest on Monday afternoon has risen to around 10,000 and is the country's deadliest quake since 1976. Troops dispatched About 50,000 troops have been dispatched to the disaster area to assist in rescue work. China's rapid response comes amid international criticism of Myanmar's handling of the fallout from Cyclone Nargis, with Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, criticising Myanmar's ruling generals for their "unacceptably slow response" on Monday. China has itself been criticised in the past for withholding information about national disasters, such as the outbreak of the Sars epidemic in 2003. The country's health minister and Beijing's mayor were sacked after widespread condemnation that local authorities had not been frank in chronicling the spread of the highly infectious disease. And in March, China's crackdown and foreign media blackout on Tibet after anti-government riots in the capital of Lhasa led to sharp international criticism of Beijing's human rights record and its rule over Tibet. Wenchuan, the county where the epicentre of the quake is located, sits near the provincial border with Tibet. No politics Anbin Shi, a professor of media and cultural studies at Tsinghua University in Beijing, said that China's government was more responsive and open to the quake than to the recent riots in Tibet because there were no political overtones to the crisis. He said China's state-run media reported on the quake 10 minutes after it occurred and the government held a press conference within an hour. Guidelines issued in the lead up to the August Olympic Games demanding that local authorities provide accurate information about disasters, have helped, Shi said. But he added that information found on the internet also put pressure on the government to respond. "Following the increasing trend of Chinese netizens playing the role of journalists, the website tudou [potato] was showing pictures of the earthquake straight after it occurred," he said.
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