China Uses Disaster to Shore Up Support for Nation

This summer’s devastating flood waters are receding across most of China, but the Communist regime seems intent on wringing every last drop of public-relations value it can out of the disaster.

Months after the floods first hit the news both here and abroad, coverage of the catastrophe continues unabated as the government tries to use the opportunity to do everything from burnishing the image of the nation’s armed forces to rousing patriotic ardor and promoting Beijing’s domestic reform agenda.

The latest propaganda wave crested Monday during a political pep rally at the Great Hall of the People, where President Jiang Zemin delivered what aides had promised would be an “important address,” one of only a few each year to which foreign media are invited.

Before an audience of thousands, including the country’s top leaders, foreign diplomats and People’s Liberation Army soldiers, Jiang paid tribute to flood-fighting efforts in a 45-minute speech that stressed the strength of the Chinese people, the unity of the citizenry and the army, and China’s development during the past 20 years under the Communist Party.

“The courage and strength displayed today by the Chinese people in conquering natural disasters and all kinds of difficulties and obstacles are seldom seen in the world,” Jiang said, his voice rising at points to cue applause. “. . . With such a party, such an army and such a people, we can create miracles in the world.”

He went on to put in a plug for the government’s economic reforms, which have encountered resistance recently as millions of workers lose their jobs and the Asian financial crisis pinches the Chinese economy.

“The victory over the floods has given a strong impetus to a successful accomplishment” of the reforms, Jiang said, exhorting the entire nation to “display and develop the great flood-fighting spirit . . . [to] complete this year’s tasks of reform and development with full confidence.”

The speech was carried live on radio and on loudspeakers in Tiananmen Square. It dominated the first half-hour of the nightly newscast Monday and was followed by a two-hour variety show titled “Ode to the Flood-Fighting Spirit,” featuring singers, dancers and an effusion of red banners.

To be sure, China’s is not the first government to try to turn a national tragedy to political advantage. But Beijing is milking the floods--the worst in 34 years, killing 3,004 people and causing billions of dollars in damage--for all they’re worth in image-building.

Some observers are not surprised that the regime is trying to shore up its support and drum up feelings of nationalism and patriotism, just as it did last year during the hand-over of Hong Kong.

“I think the kind of reports are what you’d expect” of the government, said one Western diplomat based here.

For weeks, television was blanketed with scenes of heroic PLA soldiers battling the churning Yangtze River to fortify thousands of miles of dikes. Recently, however, coverage of the flooding has switched from dire tableaux of homeless villagers, martyred soldiers and submerged rooftops to feel-good stories about donations generated, schools being opened despite the surrounding hardship and even the hidden blessings of having one’s community wiped off the map.

“My new house is much better,” one villager in the rebuilt Inner Mongolian village of Tebuxinaili was quoted as telling former Premier Li Peng in Monday’s edition of the People’s Daily, the Communist Party mouthpiece. The article highlighted the restoration of Tebuxinaili to a better state than it was in before the Guiliu River swamped it.

Even the government’s surprising admission that some of its own land-use policies contributed to the severity of the floods--especially excessive logging on hillsides, which has reduced ground absorption of rain--is fading from the spotlight. Jiang referred to the admission only obliquely in his speech, acknowledging that “we cannot always have an instant comprehensive understanding of the law of nature.”