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By Tiger Tong, Contributor
The year 2008, the 30th anniversary of China’s
open-door policy, was expected to be glamorous as it is to host the
Olympics for the first time. However, the nation was moved to the
world central stage in the least expected way this year. After the
half-century-chance snowstorm and the Tibet riots, an 8-magnitude
earthquake hit China on May 12, the worst since the People’s
Republic of China was founded in 1949. But the way Chinese people
fight against the disaster demonstrates the power of an emerging
great nation.
It was a sunny day on May 12 in Singapore, and I
was on leave. I took my 10-month-old daughter to a neighborhood
garden in the afternoon, and suddenly I remembered I needed to check
the progress of one urgent assignment that partially was taken by my
colleagues in Chengdu. So I called my colleague in Singapore office
and was told that Chengdu was hit by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake, and
all our colleagues had been evacuated. My first reaction was it
could not be true. How could I believe that a city I almost visit
every month was hit by such a deadly earthquake?
Then I became very worried as my parents
happened to be in Chengdu on that day. After staying in Singapore
for a few months, they went back home on May 11. There was no direct
flight to my hometown, so they had to transfer in either Guangzhou
or Chengdu. To me, Chengdu is a city with a lot fun, and my
brother-in-law is working in Chengdu. So I recommended my parents to
stay in Chengdu for a few days and asked my brother-in-law to show
them around.
I tried to call my brother-in-law several times
but failed. Then I called my sister, who is in my hometown, asking
whether she has got any information about her husband and my parents
. . . She assured me in a very calm tone that my brother-in-law had
just informed her that all of them were safe. Later, I managed to
hear the voice of my brother-in-law, and he told me that Chengdu was
by and large all right. In the evening I was also told that all my
colleagues in Chengdu were safe.
As more media coverage goes on, I was shocked by
the magnitude of this tragedy and felt heartbroken for the life loss
of my fellow Chinese. According to the official estimate, as many as
50,000 lives could have perished in this disaster, and many of them
are kids. Their bright future abruptly ended at 2:28 p.m. on May 12.
I always believe that the Chinese government is
the master of urgent issue controller. They responded swiftly and
effectively this time. Within two hours, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao
had boarded the plane heading for Sichuan. Tens of thousands of
soldiers were mobilized rushing to the quake zone at the same time.
The Sichuan earthquake has drawn generous aids
across the world. While there are still some media that tried to
denounce the Chinese government to exploit this tragedy to
strengthen its ruling and one China expert took this opportunity to
demonstrate his deep knowledge about Chinese history and wondered,
“Why, if the Chinese had come to know so much about earthquakes so
early on in their immensely long history, were they never able to
minimize the effects of the world’s contortions—to at least the
degree that America has?” media reports in the world by and large
provide positive comments on China government’s efforts.
Despite the government’s strenuous efforts in
the relief work after the earthquake, the great courage that the
Chinese people have been demonstrating also indicate the huge
potential of this nation. It is those mothers who sacrificed their
own lives to save their kids, those teachers who covered their
students with their own bodies, those young soldiers who ran into
the quake zone without any hesitation when aftershocks showed no
signs of subsiding, and those survivors who are fighting against
death with strong wills that make me feel more optimistic about this
nation than ever before.
To most of us, we cannot choose when and how we
die, but we can choose how to face it. After the quake, the nation
stands firmly.
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Tiger Tong is an analyst with China
Knowledge, a premier provider of trade and investment information on
China. Opinions expressed are his own.
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