China eager to show it’s doing its best to aid Tibet quake victims

Reporting from Beijing — 

President Hu Jintao cut short his trip to South America on Thursday and Premier Wen Jiabao flew to a far-flung corner of the Tibetan plateau, pulling out all stops to portray a compassionate Chinese government doing all it can to help the victims of Wednesday’s magnitude 6.9 earthquake.

The latest official figures list 760 people killed, 9,110 injured and more than 100,000 made homeless, the majority of them Tibetan. The earthquake took place in a politically tense region where many Tibetans have long chafed under Chinese rule.

After flying Thursday night to Qinghai province’s Yushu county, close to the epicenter, Wen climbed atop a pile of rubble and pledged to “build a good life for all ethnic people after the earthquake.”

The speech was translated simultaneously into Tibetan and appeared to be warmly received.

Shortly after the quake struck at 7:49 a.m. Wednesday, images from the scene showed Chinese soldiers and paramilitary members working hand in hand with local Tibetans, some of them Buddhist monks, in common cause to rescue quake victims.

“I think the Chinese already are looking at the larger implications of this earthquake. They see it as an opportunity for the Communist Party to win sympathy through its generosity,” Robbie Barnett, a Tibet scholar at New York’s Columbia University, said Thursday.

Early indications were that Chinese and Tibetans were working well together in the relief effort, Barnett said, adding that the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, may also be looking for an opportunity to “find some common ground in the quake.”

At a news conference in Beijing on Thursday, Zou Ming, disaster relief director for the Ministry of Civil Affairs, said there were nearly 10,000 rescuers on the scene in Yushu county, but supplies remained scarce.

“What we urgently need are tents, quilts, cotton-padded clothing and instant food,” he said. “The most urgently needed material will be sent by air, the rest by train or road.”

Zou said foreign aid workers would not be brought into the earthquake zone because of the difficult access.

The earthquake has raised great logistical challenges because Yushu county is 500 miles from the nearest major airport, through winding mountain passes at elevations of more than 12,000 feet.

“Because of the high elevation, many members of the rescue team are suffering from altitude sickness. These sniffer dogs, too, their capabilities have been affected to different degrees. These are complicated topographical conditions,” said Miao Chonggang, deputy director of the emergency response team.

A small, newly built airport nearby had been crippled the first day by power failures, but it appeared to be open to a large degree Thursday for flying in relief supplies and evacuating injured patients.

The main hospital in the county seat of Jiegu was destroyed in the earthquake and, a day later, people with untreated injuries could be seen wandering in evident pain through the streets. Footage shot by CNN showed Tibetans searching through the rubble for their personal possessions, pulling out Buddhist paintings and, in one instance, a portrait of the Dalai Lama.

The crimson-robed monks offered Buddhist chants over bodies, which were gathered in rows so relatives could identify them. The monasteries, which were badly damaged by the quake, also handed out food and water. According to the Associated Press, dozens of monks were either dead or missing at the Thrangu monastery on the outskirts of town after all but its main hall collapsed.

Even with temperatures dropping below freezing at night, many residents of the town fled into the hills, returning to a nomadic lifestyle that now seemed safer than living in remaining buildings that could topple from the aftershocks. Hundreds more camped in a downtown plaza around a 50-foot-tall statue of mythical Tibetan King Gesar.

Many residents of urban areas of Yushu are impoverished former herders and farmers resettled in public housing under a controversial program that the Chinese government said would preserve grasslands and alleviate poverty. Tibetan human rights groups have complained that the practice has deprived people of their traditions and livelihood, leading to social unrest.

“Even in the best of times, there is a lot of poverty around Yushu,” said Isaac Sobol, a Canadian doctor who has worked out of Yushu. “It will be interesting to see if this will be a quick cleanup, or will there be long-term efforts to meet people’s social needs?”

barbara.demick@latimes.com