http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7435324.stm

just prior to earthquakes of magnitude 5 or more. As part of a holistic approach to earthquake prediction they might just have latched onto something.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/19/chinaearthquake.china2

When I read this through, the final sentence did strike me very hard, and made me realise that I was clearly way off the mark in my earlier comment. Clearly it is just not a case that a hard-pressed population have to suffer some minor corruption across the board – and that this will affect how well buildings are constructed ‘across the board’.

It is clearly the case that far more malign forces are at work and that ‘double-standards’ are being applied as to who gets priority.

from berlin

This to me seems rather like suggesting that if everyone in Africa had a broadband internet connection, with no nasty ‘Great Firewall of China’ type censorship then they would know all about the corruption in that great continent. And that they would then be able to overthrow the dictators, vote democratically for the people who would best be able to serve their interests, and famine and pestilence would be banished.

You don’t have to go to China to find buildings which fail to meet the current modern benchmarks for earthquake resilience. Buildings in Kobe in Japan had varying degrees of protection, although of course I’m not insinuating that this was to do with secrecy or corruption.

But I do think we need to stop seeing the whole world through the prism of our ‘developed world’ where technology and money is on tap in a way it simply isn’t in the developing world.

However perhaps this earthquake is the shock that could unsettle that balance. With 4.8m homeless, many presumably reasonably affluent people who bought flats and houses that were recently built, perhaps this will trigger a political crisis… and perhaps that’s why China’s political leaders are making such a media show of their assistance.

Ludwig. The point is that modern schools were collapsing – about 6 of them while other buildings weren’t. It is the corruption problem.
If the earthquake had been here the Houses of Parliament might have collapsed because the foundations are shallow but modern buildings wouldn’t – or not to the same extent.

The country’s modernisation is not something I would be congratulating them on. How can we complain about global polution but also praise the Chinese for successfully clogging up the environment with polutants, unwanted gadgets/toys/clothes and discarded packaging?

Unfortunately, us in the West can’t seem to get enough of this rubbish. We’re all desperate to squeeze more plastic junk out of our leftover wages on a Saturday afternoon as we’ve got nothing better to do than douse our brains with some shopping adrenalin.

Maybe the representative from the Chinese government said you weren’t as worried as he was because he knows he’ll not get elected. And then what will happen to them all? That is something for them to worry about.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/07/0720_040720_earthquake.html

Water levels dropped, strange animal behaviour all just before the quake.

Exactly the same phenomena was observed this time:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24646523/

What went wrong? Why no warning? Why was there no evacuation?

Centralized non-elected administrations tend to spend most resources at the capital, or some other most prestigious city/location. I had the same impression when I traveled in the former GDR in the early 90ies. I guess that the ‘wisdom’ of Potemkin is known all over the world. Therefore I am not surprised that the buildings ‘out in the boonies’ were not the best and most modern, and did not stand up to the quake very well.

The other important aspect is the size of China, something that is hard to grasp for a European, even when traveling there. I cannot speak from experience in China here, but I live in the U.S. and there are similar issues to be recognized.

Just looking at Electric Power distribution: You need surge protectors for everything, computer, TV, because most distribution from the substation to the houses are above ground and therefore susceptible to lightening, causing outages or damaging equipment. A power outage is a normal occurrence that happens once a month or so. I lived in Germany before and can only remember ONE power outage at all. Does that mean that the German power system is better? Maybe, but more important all distances involved are significantly small and distance matters to electricity.

I think the same is true in China, independent of type or form of government, a huge country has problems that the typical European can’t even dream about.

All that being said, I am impressed with the fast response the Chinese government mounted, especially in contrast to the mess in Burma.

Just my 10 pennies worth (adjusted for inflation).

Please tell us more about this torture legislation – it sounds very interesting.