Beijing's overall response to the Sichuan earthquake of 2008 is a pretty good template for general structural issues in China, if you'll excuse the pun. The actual emergency cum disaster relief element of the effort was effective and largely well executed, by most accounts. That and the same year's Olympics showed that Beijing could bring off huge, project-specific logistics jobs to a pretty high standard.
Then questions started to be asked about why so many schools fell over so easily in the first place. The so-called tofu schools scandal didn't see any officials charged or removed: skimming from building contracts is apparently too far embedded into the enrichment strategies of local cadres. People who drew attention to the scandal got somewhat rougher treatment.
There's a notable curve here. The earthquake flattened the structure of local government along with all the other structures: it was at this point that the disaster relief was at its most effective. As local government began to recover, so it began to siphon off recovery funds to its pet projects.
Now we have evidence that local government in the region is back to its fighting best: a new school which managed top be actually built with money donated to victims has been demolished to make way for a commercial development. Apparently the new school was 'too small', but fortunately a huge property development company generous enough to take over the land and build luxury apartments was found. So that's OK then.
The "pet projects" link is very Italian - reminds me of something Paul Ginsborg wrote about an earthquake in the South in the late 50s(?) which left thousands of people homeless for years on end, although local building companies got very rich on reconstruction money. Which I suppose is pretty good going, considering they've only been playing with real money for 20 years or so.
Posted by: Phil | May 23, 2012 at 12:55 PM
There was an earthquake in Lorca, near Cartagena, just over twelve months ago. Some people killed, more than a thousand houses had to be demolished. I saw the figure for how many have so far been rebuilt. I think it was five.
Posted by: ejh | May 23, 2012 at 04:11 PM
Slightly OT, but good post from Felix almon on Bo Xilai: http://blogs.reuters.com/ben-walsh/2012/05/23/you-say-princelings-i-say-elite-corps-of-investment-bankers/
Posted by: ajay | May 23, 2012 at 04:53 PM
Ben Walsh rather than Felix. Wonder if that's the Ben Walsh I used to know? Last time I met him (in Dublin) he was about to emigrate to make his fortune writing about baseball, so "online editor at Reuters" isn't impossible as a destination. (Me, I was editing a magazine for AS/400 users at the time, and now I'm a lecturer in criminology.)
Posted by: Phil | May 23, 2012 at 05:59 PM
Have I mentioned Reuters on here before? A lot of news that I get with a Yahoo account consists of rightwing commentary masquerading as news, with Reuters at the top. Has anybody else noticed this, has it always been true and what's it about?
Posted by: ejh | May 23, 2012 at 07:31 PM
Yes, Ben Walsh - sorry about that.
ejh: what kind of thing? Got a link?
Posted by: ajay | May 24, 2012 at 10:55 AM
I'd have to dig around more than I've got time for now to give you a proper selection. I'll maybe accumulate a few over time and come back on this one if that's OK.
Posted by: ejh | May 24, 2012 at 11:07 AM
ejh: sure, go for it.
Posted by: ajay | May 24, 2012 at 11:30 AM