(Clearwisdom.net) After the powerful earthquake in Wenchuan County on May 12, 2008, the Communist regime-controlled media has intentionally downplayed the suffering of the people in the disaster areas and the damage arising from poorly constructed, dangerous school buildings and other structures. The Chinese state media has virtually ignored this aspect of the disaster.
1. Evidence that the Communist Rulers Withheld Crucial Earthquake Warnings from the General Population
Several military installations and core enterprises received advanced earthquake warnings. The Yingxiuwan Power Station and Taipingyi Power Station are both in Wenchuan. Half of the 500 employees at the Yingxiuwan Power Station died, but no one from the Taipingyi Power Station died. According to inside information, Taipingyi Power Station management gave hints to the employees of an impending disaster but were placed under a higher-up gag order to not reveal the actual reason. People were only told to evacuate the building.
Nuclear industry research and production officials also took action in the Mianyang centers to make sure people were safe. The major loss to those facilities--as far as we know--is due to the entire mountain collapsing and being buried. Prior to the earthquake, nearby residents living close the local military airport in Chengdu City saw that the usually covered airplanes were all readied to take off.
Based on observations and reasoning by people in the disaster areas, it appeared that military and other government organizations received secret advanced warnings. Those who had access to the privileged information then notified their families, who further relayed the information.
2. Utter Disregard for Human Life
People who live on Fuxin Street in Dujiangyan City will never forget what happened at 21:16 on May 17, 127 hours after the quake: a Russian rescue team rescued a 64-year-old woman, Xu Rongxin, from under the ruins. She was under a six-story residential building that had completely collapsed. Residents at the lower levels were buried in the rubble. Prior to the arrival of the Russia rescue team, four rescue teams from the Dujiangyan City government had already passed by. They said, "There is no way people could still be alive here" and did not go there. Immediately following the quake, a Russian rescue team sent a request to Chinese authorities for permission to come help, but it took four days for their offer to be accepted. The first day the Russian team arrived Mianzhu City, local officials obstructed their rescue efforts. The next day, at the Hehuachi Market, Dujiangyan City officials rejected the team's offer of help. Some Chinese people laughed at the Russian rescuers when they pointed out the Chinese domestic rescue team's approach of using excavators to dig blindly was wrong and ineffective.
Dujiangyan City Earthquake Relief Headquarters officials apparently pointed the Russian rescue team randomly to Fuxing Street. As it happened, it took the Russian team only one hour to pull a living person from the rubble. Many people applauded even as they murmured among themselves about the rescue, "If overseas rescue teams had come earlier, many children from Xinjian Elementary School and Juyuan Middle School might have been saved."
The Communist regime prevented the Russian rescue team from arriving right after the disaster, and also put up roadblocks for the rescue teams from Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore, thereby missing the first 72-hour window of opportunity, the most critical period. Five days later, what could have been a successful rescue effort turned into a recovery effort for dead victims buried in the ruins. The Head of the South Korean rescue team commented, "Our only regret is to have gotten here a bit late."
This was a scene shown on Sichuan TV: The roaring noise from the excavator had awakened a survivor buried under the rubble. He shouted immediately after hearing the first dig, but the machine's noise drowned out his calls for help. He continued to shout and scream and was finally found when they dropped the second shovel. This information was never re-broadcast. Many people at the rescue scene said, "This is not a rescue! The shovel would kill many people still alive under the rubble." This sad turn of events is partially due to the soldiers' lack of experience and rescue knowledge, but it is primarily due to the military leaders blindly following orders from their superiors to show rescue "progress" and to gain additional political capital for the regime's propaganda needs.
(To be continued)