Chapter 60 59. Wenchuan: China's Pain

The 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake was the most painful disaster for the Chinese during this eventful year, and Wenchuan has thus become China's pain.Wenchuan County is a small county in the southeast of Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture on the northwestern edge of the Sichuan Basin, 75 kilometers away from Chengdu. The magnitude 8 earthquake on May 12, 2008 made Wenchuan the most concerned place in China.Before that, China was in the heat of the run-up to the Olympics, with debate surrounding events in the country such as events in Lhasa, elections in Taiwan, new labor laws and the torch relay.

The advent of the earthquake made the whole of China a little dumbfounded.Admit it or not, for at least a moment the country was at a loss. Before May 12, 2008, an eager and manic mood prevailed in China.Whether they are pessimists or optimists about China, everyone agrees that 2008 will be a very special year for China.There are many factors that make 2008 a pivotal year.The first is two general elections.In many predictions and speeches in early 2008, countless observers said that the final results of these two elections will have a profound impact on China and the whole world: one is the Taiwan election; the other is the US election.

Taiwan's general election in March 2008 ended with the defeat of the Democratic Progressive Party, which had been in power for eight years, to the Kuomintang led by Ma Ying-jeou and Xiao Wanchang.This result is enough to let the 1.3 billion mainland Chinese who are waiting to see across the strait breathe a sigh of relief.If the Democratic Progressive Party still wins this election, whether Taiwan will continue to drift further and further away from the mainland, how the Communist government will react, and how the US government will respond to the Chinese Communist government’s reaction, all these possible things will happen. It's chilling.Before the general election, Taiwanese citizens residing in mainland China: Taiwanese businessmen who invested and set up factories, businessmen who searched for gold in the mainland, Taiwanese artists living in Beijing and Shanghai, and many Taiwanese working in the mainland returned to Taiwan to vote.The results of the election made these sweaty people happy.The Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council of China immediately issued a declaration saying that the election results proved that the forces of Taiwan independence are unpopular, and Taiwanese people think more that their business in the mainland will not be affected in the end, and Taiwan's economy can continue to ride on the journey of mainland China. Orient Express.

Another big event is the Olympic Games to be held in Beijing in August 2008. When IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch declared Beijing the winner in 2000, the whole of China erupted.In the following eight years, the government has always talked about the Olympics from time to time, and most Chinese people still look forward to the Olympics as they support Beijing's bid to host the Olympics.The government treats the 2008 Olympic Games as a huge national image building project. Sometimes it is too hasty and inappropriate. Foreign friends give way.The photos were taken and posted on the Internet, and the viewers snickered.But more serious scholars are arguing whether China can use the Beijing Olympics to make the country leapfrog, just as South Korea used the Seoul Olympics and Japan used the Tokyo Olympics to make the entire country enter the ranks of modern countries.More pessimistic economists are predicting that after the Olympic Games, China's economic growth may slow down, and the loss of the previous rapid growth will expose all kinds of problems temporarily covered up by the growth?

A series of unexpected disasters since the beginning of 2008 did not ease this complex, eager and restless mood.The ice and snow disaster at the beginning of the year caused power outages in some areas, and more people were affected by the suspension of some railway lines. The crowds waiting to go home at Guangzhou Railway Station were put on hold at this transportation hub, which has always been known for its congestion and poor security. Baiyun Airport also began to look like a farmers' market, with groups of helpless passengers wandering around, asking any staff who might ask for help about their flight.

The completion and opening of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway made the mainland media very excited for a while.At that time, most of the vehicles driving on the road leading to Tibet were interview vehicles of various media.In addition to the reports sent back by reporters at the scene, what appeared in the media outlets also included various information about Tibet's past and present.But none of these reporters expected that there would be another round of Tibet fever that was even higher.It's just that the next round of Tibet fever was triggered by the riots in Tibet.The military and separatists have been out of the sight of ordinary people for too long, but the so-called "smashing, smashing and looting" incidents in Tibet have stunned most Chinese who have never cared about Tibet.

But none of these stopped the relay of the Olympic torch from overseas to domestic.Around the upcoming event in August, the government organized a large-scale torch relay event, and every place it went, the scene was like a festival.In the official media, this sense of celebration has continued, even though we know that the beginning of the year has seen the destruction of public facilities caused by snowstorms, followed by regrettable events in Tibet, China.The torch relay reporting teams of CCTV and some other media have been following the route of the torch relay, so that those Chinese who are concerned about this matter can always "walk with the torch".There were again protests and protests against protests during the torch relay.What is even more bizarre is that two trains collided in Shandong.For a moment, the people of the country were speechless.

These events were accompanied by a new round of revelations about sweatshops.The unlucky target this time is Zhang Yin, a paper tycoon and strong woman who was once known as the richest man in China.Zhang Yin, who is outspoken, was scolded by many people in the media and on the Internet for submitting a proposal against the new labor law at the CPPCC meeting at the beginning of the year. Now she is directly accused by a student organization of being "the shame of Hong Kong" - Zhang Yin's Nine Dragons Paper is a listed company in Hong Kong.These were topics of public concern before May 12, 2008.All this was changed by the devastating earthquake that occurred in Sichuan Province, China that day.Earthquakes hit with unimaginable violence.Just two years ago, the Chinese media were still talking about the Tangshan earthquake. 2006 is the 30th anniversary of the Tangshan Earthquake. Thirty years later, people are still shocked by the devastation caused by the earthquake.A Tangshan writer published a book to explore why earthquake experts failed to predict the Tangshan earthquake.Two years later, a devastating earthquake comparable to the Tangshan earthquake occurred again in China.Those younger generations in China who did not experience the shock of the Tangshan earthquake were deeply involved in this disaster spiritually.We can see this from many comments on the Internet.The whole country was in mourning.All discussions will be put on hold for the time being.The accusations against Zhang Yin were temporarily forgotten by the media and the general public; no one talked about Tibet anymore; the protests surrounding the torch relay and the condemnation of such protests were no longer heard.Only one theme remains: Earthquakes!

This major earthquake involved most of the Chinese from the very beginning, and its scope of influence included county towns within 50km of the epicenter and large and medium-sized cities within 200km.In China, except for Heilongjiang, Jilin and Xinjiang, the tremors were felt to varying degrees in other regions.It was only at the beginning that many people living in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai didn't know what it meant.At the beginning, a white-collar worker working in Beijing was still joking about the impact on the Guomao area of ​​Beijing's East Third Ring Road and the Financial Street area on the West Second Ring Road.It shook her too, but it seemed like a harmless tease.People hurried down the stairs from dozens of floors to Broad Avenue, watching in amazement as the skyscrapers swayed.But after watching the Internet news, she immediately became worried because her parents had just traveled to Chengdu.The epicenter was Yingxiu Town, Wenchuan County, Sichuan Province, China, a small town 75 kilometers northwest of Chengdu.

As further information about the disaster was reported, everyone was in a state of shock and grief.In some areas, people lost their lives, loved ones and property, while in others, people gazed at the disaster in a distant place and felt that they felt like they were there. On the night of May 12, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao took a special plane to Chengdu and rushed to the disaster area.From the very beginning of 2008, people respectfully called Wen Jiabao the prime minister for disaster relief.When the ice and snow were raging, Wen Jiabao once took his own special plane to go south to Guangzhou, Changsha and other places.This time, the Prime Minister rushed to Wenchuan at an unprecedented speed.This was the earliest move of the Chinese in the early days of the disaster.Various pictures and rumors about Premier Wen Jiabao began to circulate on the Internet.Every time he shed tears, every time he was furious, and how he dropped the phone because of the slow speed of disaster relief, and how he expressed his words to the army to raise soldiers for a thousand days and use them for a short time, all moved ordinary Chinese.

What followed was a long and difficult period of disaster relief.All the people in front of the TV were worried, and almost didn't want to work, but they couldn't do anything about the inner torment.So much so that as soon as there was a way to donate money, extraordinary results were achieved immediately.According to statistics as of 12:00 noon on September 8, 2008, donations from all walks of life at home and abroad totaled 59.347 billion yuan.However, the statistics of casualties as of this time period are equally astonishing. A summary of casualties across the country shows that 69,226 people were killed, 374,643 were injured, and 17,923 people were missing. The sentiment of the people is so high that it is almost irrational, and if there is a slight difference in remarks, there will be a lot of abuse.In the earthquake donation event, those generous enterprises and entrepreneurs naturally won applause. For example, Zhang Xiangqing, the chairman of Tianjin Rongcheng Iron and Steel Co., Ltd., who lost his parents and brother in the Tangshan earthquake, donated a huge amount of 100 million yuan. The other two private iron and steel enterprises, Rizhao Steel and Jiangsu Shagang, also donated huge sums of 112.6 million yuan and 813.6 billion yuan respectively.The Formosa Plastics Group of Wang Yongqing, the god of management, donated 100 million yuan.A beverage brand, Wanglaoji, also generously donated 100 million yuan. Netizens who were touched by Dashou posted posts on the Internet, calling for the immediate purchase of Wanglaoji in the supermarket.During that period of time, the mailboxes of all business reporters kept receiving notices of donations from various companies.Companies make donations almost as if they were competing in a marketplace.But there are also the less fortunate.Wang Shi, the chairman of Vanke Group, has always been considered a model of Chinese businessmen, but because he was a little thoughtless about donations, saying that he did not want donations to become a burden on employees and companies, he suddenly became a profiteer that everyone called out to beat.In the end, Vanke announced that it would invest 100 million yuan free of charge to participate in the post-disaster reconstruction.The donation amounts of various companies and celebrities on the Internet are announced, and those who donate huge amounts of property are praised without hesitation, but companies and celebrities who are considered to have failed to meet the psychological expectations of donations are criticized on the Internet.The amount of donations has become the standard to measure whether companies, businessmen, and celebrities have a sense of responsibility and even morality; for those multinational companies and other countries, the amount of donations has become the standard to measure whether they are friendly to the Chinese people. go". From the beginning of the earthquake, some people called for flags to be flown at half-staff.Some people said that the torch relay should be temporarily suspended, and some people said that the torch should be passed to Wenchuan.The government followed the example of kindness, and the State Council issued an announcement to designate May 19 to 21 as the National Day of Mourning. Book of condolence. From 14:28 on May 19, the people of the whole country will mourn for 3 minutes. At that time, cars, trains, ships and air defense sirens will sound. During the national mourning day from May 19 to 21, the Beijing Olympic flame The transmission will be suspended." The media is full of mourning.The front pages of newspapers and Internet portals are all gray pages, and when the TV is turned on, all channels are broadcasting disaster relief news.In this way, even if someone wants to do something else, there is no environment and resources to do it.Media reporters also gathered in Sichuan. When colleagues met outside the disaster area, most of them would ask: "Why didn't you go to the disaster area?" Some reporters who went to the disaster area saw a slogan in the disaster area: Disaster relief is glorious, disaster watching is shameful .They couldn't help wondering whether they belonged to the ranks of disaster observers. Wenchuan has become a pain for China.This is also the first time that China has encountered such a major disaster since it became a relatively open country.As a result, the enthusiasm of the people was almost uncontrollable for a while, and various chaotic scenes appeared one after another.However, the government has reversed the unfavorable remarks against the government in various matters in one fell swoop.The express train of China drove towards the Olympic Games with the sorrow of unity and the dream of a great country.