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Survivors of Tangshan earthquake both bitter and grateful

by Robert J. Saiget
Beijing (AFP) Jul 28, 2006
== For two elderly residents of Tangshan, the 30th anniversary Friday of the 20th century's most deadly earthquake brings back a complex range of emotions from misery to anger and deep gratitude.

Mr and Mrs Guo still wonder why they were not among the 240,000 people killed in the quake and remain immensely grateful for the efforts of the rescue teams that rushed to the devastated northern Chinese city.

But they also continue to feel bitterness over a lack of government warning of the pending disaster.

The earthquake, which measured 7.8 on the Richter scale and was followed by a 7.1 aftershock 15 hours later, shook the city in the early morning of July 28, 1976, flattening 90 percent of Tangshan's buildings.

"Things were horrible, so many people died," Mr Guo, 79, told AFP recently as he sat in a park next to preserved earthquake ruins on the campus of Hebei Polytechnic University in central Tangshan.

"If only we had better earthquake prognostication, if they had a warning system, not so many people would have died and it would have not been so bad."

He said this with a mix of sarcasm and anger, as he acknowledged a string of reports that have come to light over the past 20 years that local and central governmental seismologists had predicted a major earthquake in the region.

Adding insult to injury was that 180,000 buildings were flattened in neighboring Qinglong county, but very few fatalities were recorded as local officials had ordered people out of their homes after heeding the predictions.

"Qinglong county got out of it okay because the local leaders paid attention to the warnings," Mr Guo said.

"A lot of people were pretty upset about this, but now, 30 years after, there is not much you can do about it."

Mr Guo, who has lived, worked and retired on the university campus refused to give his full name or his occupation, apparently because of his critical remarks.

Mrs Guo, 81, however, was full of praise for the rescue operations of the People's Liberation Army and for former revolutionary leader Mao Zedong.

"The People's Liberation Army was great, they came in here so fast and brought in a lot of supplies like tents and food," she said.

"When they came they had to use their bare hands to dig people out, they had no modern machinery to dig people out. They also had to bury the dead, which was horrible work because of the stench and danger of disease."

Many people in Tangshan still hold superstitious beliefs that the earthquake was somehow connected to Chinese politics.

Fueling this belief is the fact it not only ushered in the end of the disastrous decade-long Cultural Revolution 1966-1976, but it followed the death of former prime minister Zhou Enlai and just ahead of Mao's death.

"I think chairman Mao died because he could not take the destruction and death suffered by Tangshan," Mrs Guo said.

Mr Guo had a different take on the political impact of the Tangshan earthquake.

"The Tangshan earthquake not only pushed forward the end of the Cultural Revolution, but it also pushed China toward the open and reform policies," he said.

"Chairman Mao refused foreign aid to help Tangshan, but later everyone saw this was a mistake and since then China has come to depend a lot on our foreign friends."

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EU seeks support for dumping duties on Chinese, Vietnamese shoes
Brussels (AFP) Jul 27, 2006
The European Commission sought Thursday to rally member states behind a proposal for new anti-dumping duties on Chinese and Vietnamese shoe imports, despite deep divisions, a spokesman said.







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