Observing the Incredible, Sobering Images of the Earthquake in China

Nearly 69,000 people have been confirmed dead and 18,000 others missing in the earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale that hit China's Sichuan Province on May 12. In looking for the appropriate analogy, we believe this earthquake will significantly impact Chinese domestic policy on the same scale (if not more) that 9/11 significantly impacted American foreign policy.

Photo Caption: This Friday May 16, 2008, photo, distributed by the official Chinese news agency Xinhua, shows a dead student's hand holding a pen tightly in the debris site of Dongqi Middle School in Hanwang Town of quake-hit Mianzhu City, southwest China's Sichuan province. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Liu Zhongjun)

Very few of these pictures are overtly gruesome, and yet the impact is such I warn ahead of time.

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We have heard a lot about the C-130 shipments to Myanmar, but I haven't seen much on the C-17 fully loaded flights of humanitarian aid to China. With aid flowing into China from all over, if anyone knows of any "informative" links of any particular countries contribution to the Chinese earthquake, leave a link in the comments please.

The school issue specifically is still significant, 3 weeks later.

The rubble-strewn streets of Wufu are lined with wreaths, and white flowers made of folded paper hang from bushes. Among the symbols of grief are signs openly directing roiling anger at the government.

Almost three weeks after an earthquake shattered central China, anger is seething that corrupt officials may have allowed shoddy building construction that resulted in the deaths of thousands of children when schools collapsed in the disaster.

The anger — unusual in tightly-controlled China for its open challenge to the government — has not been cooled by repeated assurances that the issue will be thoroughly investigated and offenders severely punished.

In many areas, schools collapsed killing hundreds even when most other buildings nearby did not. At first, the government concealed the problem by not covering it in the press, but no longer, the Chinese media is now actively covering the issue across China. That in and of itself represents significant change from previous policy.