English is translated by UPI Asia: http://www.upiasiaonline.com/Politics/2008/05/14/evaluating_chinas_rescue_efforts/8034/

Shanghai, China � A sudden severe earthquake of magnitude 7.8 on the Richter scale occurred in China's southwestern province of Sichuan on the afternoon of May 12. Twenty-four hours later, the central government still had not sent paratroopers to the rescue in remote areas. Some helicopters were sent in, but turned back due to unfavorable weather.
Army troops were sent to some areas on foot, but owing to bad weather and seriously damaged roads, the soldiers couldn't access the disaster-hit areas within one day.

It should have been considered that such a huge earthquake would surely have destroyed access roads to some areas. Even if the roads were passable, aircraft would have been the fastest way to get people to the scene.

The famous earthquake that hit the city of Tangshan in Hebei province in 1976 was also magnitude 7.8, and led to the death of more than 250,000 people, by official count. Thus, the earthquake in Sichuan could also take a terrible toll in lives.

We can imagine how much effort the rescue work would require. At least three people would be needed to move an injured person from out of the rubble. So if there are 100,000 people trapped or hurt, 300,000 soldiers should be air-dropped immediately.

Therefore, in the first minute after hearing such an earthquake had hit Sichuan, central government leaders should have called a teleconference and made arrangements within an hour to send in 300,000 soldiers by aircraft. While the team was in the air further rescue plans could be made.

Many other things needed to be sent to the disaster areas, including tents, food and medicine. Injured people in great numbers needed to be taken to hospitals, and should have been taken quickly by air to hospitals in other regions. Local hospitals could not possibly receive so many patients at one time. One thing that can be regarded as positive among the many problems with the rescue procedures is that the injured were transferred to other medical facilities across the country.

During the snow disaster that hit China early this year, the central government did not send out the army until more than two weeks after heavy snows buried huge parts of the country. Later this was attributed to fears that the military might use this crisis to stage a mutiny. In the present crisis, it is assumed that the same consideration caused the central government to delay sending the army for 24 hours.

In fact, there are many ways to prevent a military mutiny. One of them is to mix up top commanders and their subordinates on the spot.

As for foreign rescue teams, the Chinese government should welcome them rather than refusing them or remaining silent concerning them. There is no need to fear they are coming to spy on China. Aid workers should be allowed entry without visas, directly taken to the disaster areas and allowed to mix with local rescue teams to work together. After the rescue work is finished, the foreign teams can be directly sent off as a group. (Editor's note: In the early morning of May 13, Luo Pingfei, vice minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, said it was not appropriate yet to receive foreign rescue teams.)

Finally, state leaders like Premier Wen Jiabao and President Hu Jintao should not always rush to the very front line whenever there is a serious accident within the nation. The real problem solvers are often those who stay in the command center, working out solutions to critical situations. The leaders have been criticized for putting on a show by running around at the scenes of disasters. They are not very effective in bringing results in such situations.

Moreover, as state leaders, their safety does matter. If their physical safety is threatened it will only worsen the crisis. On May 13, it was reported that Wen bloodied his hand at the rescue scene. He could have been hurt more seriously, as aftershocks continued to occur, and this would have caused more trouble.

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(Xu Dexuan is a scholar of sinology, based in Shanghai. This article is edited and translated from the Chinese by UPI Asia Online; the original can be found at http://news.boxun.com/news/gb/pubvp/2008/05/200805141101.shtml �Copyright Xu Dexuan.)