Typhoon's toll much higher than China's leaders let on

[n2doc]

Typhoon Toll Much Higher Than China’s Leaders Let On

In Fujian Province, the wreck of Wei Dingxian’s boat. “I’ve never seen such a big wind,” said Mr. Wei, who lost his brother in Typhoon Saomai.

By HOWARD W. FRENCH
Published: September 14, 2006
XI’AO, China, Sept. 9 — Where as many as 10,000 fishing boats once docked, now only a few bob in a long, serpentine harbor flecked with wrecks. All along the shoreline here, families that only recently made a rich living from the sea stare glumly at reminders of their loss. Clearly, this fishing village and others near the mouth of a bay on China’s southeast coast suffered catastrophic damage when Typhoon Saomai blew through on the afternoon of Aug. 10, a Category 4 storm packing sustained winds of 150 miles per hour. Yet the next day, initial reports listed only 17 people dead and 138 missing in all of Fujian Province. By noon on Aug. 10, according to news reports distributed nationwide, more than 500,000 people had been evacuated, and five million others had been alerted to the impending danger through short messages sent to cellphone users. The emergency response was trumpeted as a triumph.

In the storm’s aftermath, however, a very different account of events has gradually taken shape. Although it is unlikely that an accurate death toll will ever be determined, the actual numbers appear to far surpass the official totals. While visiting the area two days after the storm struck, China’s vice premier, Hui Liangyu, praised the local authorities for their “proper direction, for effectively limiting the damage, for strong measures and for orderly rescue work.” But an internal report by the official New China News Agency, compiled in the days after the storm and intended just for the authorities, bluntly contradicted the official picture. In succeeding days, the Chinese news media also took an increasingly skeptical view of the official accounts. After consulting with local fishermen, these publications, among them Chinese Newsweek, concluded that about 900 boats from the immediate area had been lost at sea. Because each fishing boat typically carries a crew of two, they estimated that some 2,000 people had died just in this vicinity, where the storm hit hardest.

One fisherman, Wei Dingxian, said, “I’ve never seen such a big wind, and neither has anyone who has lived here in the last 60 years.” Mr. Wei, 34, whose boat was destroyed, and whose brother drowned on another craft, told one Chinese magazine that he saw bodies floating in the bay for several days as he searched for his brother. During events like these it often seems that the Chinese authorities are at war with the news, or even with the truth itself. Weeks after the storm, local residents complained bitterly that the vice premier had been led by local officials to a village where the damage was minimal, wittingly or not, participating in a masquerade.

In a further indication of official concerns, a foreign reporter’s visit to the site was interrupted by a video camera-wielding crew of local propaganda officials who stopped his tour and escorted him out of the province. Earlier this year, the country’s State Council, or cabinet, approved a law that would assess large fines against “news media that violate the regulations and release reports about the situation regarding management of sudden incidents.” The law is under consideration in the legislature. In the case of Typhoon Saomai, it was the Chinese news media themselves that confronted, however tentatively, the fictional picture of a monster storm masterfully handled. Two days after the storm, and a day after Mr. Hui, the vice premier, visited the area, reporters from the headquarters of the New China News Agency in neighboring Zhejiang Province arrived here to discover scenes of devastation unlike anything that had been reported.

more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/14/world/asia/14china.html

[fed-up]

1. Chinese authorities are at war w/the news, or even with the truth itself

it often seems that the Chinese authorities are at war with the news, or even with the truth itself


sounds just like our MSM