中国对地震的回应异常公开
来源：美国《国际先驱论坛报》
母亲在孩子的尸体旁嚎啕大哭。紧急救援人员攀爬破碎的建筑物。脸色严峻的政治领袖安慰这个受灾的、忧心忡忡的国家。
尽管世界很多地区有大量这样的灾难场景，但对于一个有着隐瞒自然灾害、对自然灾害应对不当历史的国家而言，电视上不断播放的救灾工作是了不起的。
四川12日的地震令一片农村夷为平地，导致超过1.2万人丧生，还有数以千计的人被埋在瓦砾底下。
北京政府已经展开积极的救援工作，派出来自全国各地的数以万计的军队，并迅速把总理温家宝送到灾区。他头戴安全帽，拿着扩音器，进入一座化为废墟的医院，对着那里被埋的数十人高呼：“大家再坚持一下，部队正在抢救你们！”一整天，温家宝带领救灾官员并安慰伤者的画面主导着电视广播。
缅甸风灾的画面仍然历历在目，温家宝和他的共产党领袖同仁深知他们对地震的处理将受到国内外的密切关注。
那些关注中国在改革与专制之间迂回行进的人们认为，过去几个月开始集合成一个定义性时刻，这将是一个分水岭年份。这言之尚早。它对西藏事件的回应带有北京强硬派的特点。但它在13日决定简化奥运火炬在四川的传递路线（互联网上有很多声音称原计划不明智），这表明官员并非不理会公众的感受。
清华大学传播研究教授史安斌（Shi Anbin）表示，政府从西藏事件的负面国际反弹中吸取了一些教训，他认为这反映中国开放和改革的趋势。
到目前为止，这种战略似乎得到回报。中国网站和聊天室的评论盛赞政府的紧急回应。
新加坡东亚研究所主任杨大力（Dali Yang）表示，他认为政府可能已经意识到公开性和问责制可以支撑其合法性，抗衡腐败、通胀以及城乡贫富差距所引发的愤怒。他们这次的回应与1976年唐山大地震时形成鲜明对比。
与以往严密控制信息的做法相反，四川地震的报道不受限制。数十名中国记者在地震区提供现场报道，而且至少到目前为止，外国自己的进入不受限制。
就在地震发生几个小时后，温家宝就已经在飞机上，播出他尽全力拯救生命的承诺。官方媒体整天都在更新死亡人数数据。
以往常常受到审查的网站满是关于地震的手机视频和评论——大部分是赞美的，但也有一些批评的。
史安斌表示政府的坦率和国营媒体的活跃令他大吃一惊。他认为这部分要归功于最近一部要求公共官员向媒体提供信息的法例。但和很多专家一样，他也提到奥运的深刻影响。
他表示，“这是中国媒体第一次做到国际标准。我认为政府从过去吸取了一些教训。”（作者 Andrew Jacobs）
译文为摘译，英文原文地址：http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/13/asia/response.php
英文原文：
News Analysis: China's response to quake is unusually open
By Andrew Jacobs Published: May 13, 2008
BEIJING: Mothers wailing over the bodies of their children. Emergency workers scrambling across pancaked buildings. A grim-faced political leader comforting the stricken and reassuring a worried nation.
While such scenes are a staple of disasters in much of the world, the rescue effort playing nonstop on Chinese television is remarkable for a country that has a history of concealing the scope of natural disasters and then bungling its responses.
The earthquake that flattened a swath of rural Sichuan Province on Monday killed more than 12,000 people, and thousands more are buried beneath rubble.
The government in Beijing has mounted an aggressive rescue effort, dispatching tens of thousands of troops from across the country and promptly sending Prime Minister Wen Jiabao to the disaster zone, accompanied by reporters. With a hardhat on his head and a bullhorn in his hand, he ducked into the wreckage of a hospital where scores of people were buried and shouted: "Hang on a bit longer. The troops are rescuing you." Throughout the day, the images of Wen directing disaster relief officials and comforting the injured dominated the airwaves.
With images of the calamitous cyclone in Myanmar still fresh - and the authoritarian government's languid response earning it international scorn - Wen and his fellow Communist Party leaders are keenly aware that their approach to this earthquake will be closely watched at home and abroad. And after two bruising months of criticism from the West over its handling of unrest in Tibet, the government can ill afford another round of criticism as it prepares for the Olympic games in August.
Although it is still too early to know for sure, those who follow China's zigzag between reform and authoritarianism say the past few months are beginning to resemble a defining moment in what is shaping up to be a watershed year. Its harsh response against discontented Tibetans bore the hallmarks of Beijing's hard-line impulses. But its decision Tuesday to downscale the torch relay's route through quake-battered Sichuan - a reaction to the flood of Internet protests calling the original plan insensitive - was a sign that officials are not deaf to public sentiment.
Shi Anbin, a professor of media studies at Tsinghua University in Beijing, said he thought the international uproar after the crackdown in Tibet was having an impact on the country's Communist Party.
"My judgment is that the government has drawn some lessons from negative feedback," he said. "I think it reflects a trend of Chinese openness and reform."
So far, the tactic appears to be paying off. Commentary on Chinese Web sites and chat rooms has been full of praise for the government's emergency response. On Tianya, a popular forum where anti-government postings often find a home, users have been quick to shout down those who criticized Wen and the military's delay in reaching some quake victims.
"Those who can only do mouth work, please shut up at this key moment," said one posting. Another writer praised the People's Liberation Army, saying "Whenever there's a life-or-death crisis, they're the ones on the frontline. We certainly can overcome this catastrophe because we have them."
Dali Yang, the director of the East Asian Institute in Singapore, said he thought the government might have come to the realization that openness and accountability can bolster its legitimacy and counter growing anger over corruption, rising inflation and the disparity between the urban rich and the rural poor.
"I think their response to this disaster shows they can act and they can care," he said. "They seem to be aware that a disaster like this can pull the country together and bring them support."
Their response since Monday stands in stark contrast to efforts during China's last major earthquake, in 1976, when 240,000 people perished in the eastern city of Tangshan. The lessons from that disaster have undoubtedly been imprinted on the minds of the men who govern from Beijing. In the days that followed the quake, the ruling Gang of Four downplayed the disaster and rebuffed offers of help from the outside world, leaving rescue efforts to poorly equipped soldiers.
Hua Guofeng, the chosen successor of Mao Zedong who was then out of favor, visited Tangshan a few days after the quake. That act of goodwill bolstered his power and enabled him to arrest the Gang of Four, effectively ending the chaotic decade of the Cultural Revolution and ushering in leaders who introduced the economic reforms that continue to transform China.
But the Communist Party appeared to have forgotten the lessons of Tangshan in recent years. Repeated flooding on the Yangtze River - partly caused by government inaction - has killed thousands. The SARS epidemic of 2003, which officials sought to cover up, brought accusations that the party was unconcerned with the commonweal.
Last winter, Wen found himself facing thousands of angry travelers who were stranded by a snowstorm that crippled the nation's railroad system during the annual Lunar New Year holiday. And last month, the derailment of two passenger trains in Shandong Province killed 72 people, injured 400 and laid bare the failure of transportation officials to communicate a go-slow order on a stretch of track that was under construction.
In contrast to that disaster - information was tightly controlled and foreign reporters were kept at bay - coverage of the Sichuan earthquake has been unfettered. Scores of Chinese reporters have been providing live broadcasts from across the quake zone and, so far at least, foreign correspondents have been given unrestricted access.
Just hours after the quake, Wen was on a plane, broadcasting his pledge to spare no effort in saving lives. Throughout the day, official news outlets ran frequent updates of the death toll.
Web sites, which are often censored by the authorities, have been filled with cellphone videos of the quake and commentary - most of it laudatory, but some of it criticizing the military's failure to quickly reach some quake victims. A few postings have given life to a rumor that officials in Sichuan knew the quake was imminent and failed to act.
Shi Anbin, the media studies professor at Tsinghua University, said he has been astounded by the candor of the government and the vigor of the state-run Chinese press. He attributed some of the openness to a recent law that requires public officials to provide information to the media. But like many experts, he said the Olympics were having a profound impact on a government eager to embrace the world.
"This is the first time the Chinese media have lived up to international standards," he said, adding: "I think the government is learning some lessons from the past."