Earthquake lets China off the hook
By Antoaneta Bezlova
BEIJING - The outpouring of global sympathy in the aftermath of the deadly
Sichuan earthquake has shifted the focus away from China's role and influence
in cyclone-stricken Myanmar, quieting critics.
But the openness that Chinese leaders have displayed in the handling of their
own natural disaster has emboldened Chinese citizens and the country's
increasingly daring media to probe neighboring Myanmar's crisis from unexpected
angles.
Just days after the earthquake struck the province of Sichuan, the
Chinese weekly Southern Weekend carried a full-page expose of the misery of
Burmese people affected by Cyclone Nargis, providing first-hand accounts from
some of the most ravaged areas in the Irrawaddy Delta.
Voices of government officials in Myanmar were conspicuously absent from the
article. Ordinary villagers' grievances though were featured prominently along
with pledges by Myanmar-based Chinese charities and Chinese businesses for
donations.
The mere appearance of the report titled "The predicament of Burmese style
disaster relief" makes for an unusual read in the Chinese state press where
stories from Myanmar are carefully screened and the information that trickles
in is paltry. But the conclusions drawn by the report were even more striking.
"The current state of relief operations is worrying", the article stated. "If
the situation doesn't improve, the humanitarian crisis enfolding in Burma
[Myanmar] would be no less disastrous than the natural calamity that befell
..."
The article stopped short of calling on Beijing to take a more pro-active
stance and use its close ties with Yangon in helping international aid reach
Myanmar's cyclone victims. But the contrasting pictures of how the two
countries were dealing with the terrible natural disasters that have inflicted
their people were telling.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was on the ground just hours after the earthquake
struck Sichuan provinces, taking charge of a rescue operation involving some
100,000 People's Liberation Army soldiers and pledging "to use all our forces,
and save lives at whatever cost". Beijing thanked the outside world for its
sympathy, accepting aid offers and even allowing foreign relief teams to help
in the quake areas.
By contrast, Myanmar's military government refused any help and expertise for
more than ten days after Cyclone Nargis struck, killing an estimated 120,000
people. Tens of thousands are now at risk from disease because of their lack of
access to clean drinking water, food, medical supplies and shelter.
International relief effort has been frustrated by Yangon's refusal to give
foreign aid workers full access to the cyclone-affected areas and cooperate
with foreign agencies.
China's speedy response to its own disaster may have been somewhat influenced
by the global reaction to the Myanmar junta's conduct after the cyclone ravaged
that country. The regime has been commonly condemned and Australian Prime
Minister Kevin Rudd has called the junta's response "callous".
But the international community has also been divided on how to influence the
junta to open up to foreign expertise and aid. There have been calls by Western
powers to evoke the United Nations principle of "responsibility to protect",
and to enter the country without the government's consent to deliver aid.
China, India, Thailand and other Asian countries meanwhile, have refrained from
publicly confronting the junta over its refusal to accept help, and have worked
behind the scenes to get some of their own aid inside Myanmar.
Struggling to cope with the earthquake, China still managed to dispatch a
50-strong medical team to Myanmar last week, carrying 32 tons of food, water
and medicine for the survivors of the storm, the state television said. Beijing
has also pledged US$5.2 million in emergency aid, according to the Chinese
Foreign Ministry.
But human rights groups have called on China to do more by using its close
links with Myanmar to persuade the junta to accept all the international aid
that cyclone survivors badly need.
"China should do everything in its power to get sufficient aid into Burma or it
will share responsibility for the deaths of tens of thousands of people," said
Brad Adams, Human Rights Watch's Asia director in a statement.
Despite its clout in the country, Beijing had been reluctant to play a larger
diplomatic role in pressuring the regime to acquiesce to foreign help. Chinese
companies have invested heavily in Myanmar's natural resources, while Beijing
had provided financial support in the form of conditions-free loans, political
backing and military armaments.
One of Myanmar's closest allies and protector at the United Nations Security
Council where it holds veto power, China had promoted "bilateral consultations"
as the way forward in the humanitarian crisis. Beijing blocked a proposal by
France to invoke the "responsibility to protect" provisions at the Security
Council earlier saying it would needlessly politicize the issue of aid.
Liu Zhenmin, China's deputy permanent representative to the Untied Nations,
urged "the relevant international agencies and donor countries to resolve
specific issues arising during disaster relief through bilateral
consultations".
Yet diplomats in Beijing believe the devastating earthquake that hit Sichuan
last week might have made Beijing more receptive to international calls for
help.
"Keeping their 'hands off' approach would be inconsistent with the image of a
competent and compassionate power that they have presented to the world over
the last week," says one foreign diplomat in Beijing.
What is more, allowing its citizens to view the full picture of the destruction
and death afflicted to China by the earthquake, would make it more difficult to
suppress news about the devastation continuing unabated in neighboring
cyclone-stricken Myanmar. The report in the Southern Weekend is a harbinger of
what could follow if Beijing perseveres with the media openness. "Questions
would be asked," predicts the diplomat.
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