https://assets-decoders.lemonde.fr/doc_happens/2309-vrai-projet-pour-prod-vivre-apres-la-catastrophe/data.txt
2023-09-25
relive-after-the-sichuan-catastrophe
https://assets-decodeurs.lemonde.fr/doc_happens/2309-vrai-projet-pour-prod-vivre-apres-la-catastrophe/sichuan.txt
Everyone has their own trauma. If Westerners remember what they were doing on September 11, 2001, when two planes hijacked by Al-Qaeda hit the Twin Towers of Manhattan, the Chinese remember where they were on May 12, 2008. This Monday there, at 2:28 p.m. local time (8:28 a.m. in France), an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.9 shakes Sichuan, a mountainous province in southwest China. Its effects were then felt as far away as Beijing, Shanghai and even Bangkok, three cities located more than 1,500 kilometers from the epicenter of the earthquake. The balance sheet official is terrible: 87,150 dead and 374,643 injured. Ten Chinese provinces are affected, or 500,000 square kilometers (the equivalent of Spain), including 130,000 square kilometers “severely” Or “very severely”according to authorities.
“Do you see the mountain in the back? “, asks a guide, showing us around the now ghost town of Hanwang – which mattered before the earthquake nearly 10,000 inhabitants – located in the valley below. The question seems strange, as the sky is clear and the mountain is clearly visible. “Well, until May 12, 2008, the mountain was hidden by the hill in front. But it sank 300 meters, making the mountain visible. » An example, among dozens of others, of the magnitude of the earthquake. Faced with this catastrophe, the country demonstrated exceptional mobilization which continues, fifteen years later, to leave its mark.
“The Communist Party has a heart”
When they talk about Wen Jibao, prime minister from 2003 to 2013, it is his presence at the scene of the tragedy that very afternoon that the Chinese most often highlight. “The earthquake is merciless, but the Communist Party has a heart,” then affirms a popular saying. Even today, any intervention by the authorities at the scene of a disaster is judged on this basis. Beyond that, it is the entire population who, on May 12, mobilized. Some go to Sichuan with a trunk full of provisions or clothes, others launch websites, join or create NGOs…
This is not the first time in modern history that China has faced a catastrophe of this magnitude. On July 28, 1976, an earthquake in Tangshan, a city about 150 kilometers from Beijing, officially killed more than 212,000 people. dead, a figure that some experts do not hesitate to triple. But, at the time, those in power blocked all information.
You have 85.97% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.