SCMP Issues & Implications: May 15, 2008

The international community has praised the Chinese government for their swift response to the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that rattled the region.

According to Chen Li, a senior fellow from the Brookings Institute, “The earthquake, in my view, urges the Chinese leadership to not be obsessed with China’s international image and with the upcoming show of the Olympic Games, but to refocus on government accountability in dealing with all sorts of problems (that) our country faces”.

According to Steve Tsang of St. Anthony’s College, Oxford University, “They (i.e. Chinese government officials) acted quickly and deployed what resources were at (on) hand without undue delay”.

According to Hu Xingdong, a professor of politics at the Beijing University of Technology, “Party leaders have learned to be more candid about bad news and have made remarkable progress in public relations”.

Implications/Analysis/Comments/Remarks

China, in the case of the earthquake, is not as bad as Myanmar, but they are still playing hide-and-seek as far as the true story of Tibet is concerned. So, in conclusion, the Chinese government has made progress in public relations, but whether or not that progress is “remarkable” or not is debatable