Another side of why the Chinese government may be so interested that the their people take note of their efforts to save and help so many civilians after the large earthquake may be due to the Mandate of Heaven. There have been several stories about this on the blogosphere, but I think Salon.com might have a good summary.
Although 2008 is only 5.5 months in, China has suffered two major natural disasters: snow and earthquake. In January was the worst snows in decades, stopping millions of Chinese from going home to the countryside for Lunar New Year celebrations. It was cited at that time - what with the Prime Minister apologizing for the weather delays - that many people in the politburo were worried about the perception of a loss of this heavenly "mandate" for their party - their "dynasty" - to continue their rule.
Now, at the start of May, China has suffered a major earthquake, with tens-of-thousands of people dead, and possibly thousands more deaths to become confirmed.
The strength of this notion of the "Mandate of Heaven" might be stronger than some people in the West might think. After all, China is seen to be a "godless" Communist country. We know that the central government has recently made such outrageous statements as to regulating reincarnation (!) and enforce religious laws allowing only adults to practice any religion. We know that China is also a growing area of science. We tend to imprint our own viewpoints upon those pieces of evidence we see and draw conclusions based on our own world views and upbringing. However, China is not totally within our paradigm. Just as anyone in the West has to deal with a society constructed around the notion that "religion = Christianity", in a similar way the Chinese have to deal with "rulership = Mandate of Heaven". (I would forward the notion that minus a democratic system of power being vested in government by the free will of the people - which the current government is - then the possibility of hanging on to the notion of the heavens holding the mandate of rule is a pretty appealing one.) Therefore, it shouldn't be much of a surprise that since we find that religiosity in China is alive-and-well, so, too, will come the understanding that the Chinese government may be very determined to show the country that they are working for the people (especially when much of the stated religiosity shows up as "Fortune" and "Fate" - aspects governing the Mandate of Heaven).
True, the country is also putting on a show for the rest of the world. Now, I'm not saying that this is a "show" in the sense of a "dog-and-pony show", but there is an understanding that the world is watching the country. What with the Olympics coming, China has put itself (semi-voluntarily) on the world's stage for scrutiny. With this natural disaster, it has only itself to blame if relief is not given in a timely manner. Indeed, one has not heard China asking the world for relief aid, and so one might think that there is also a bit of the "we're part of the developed world" attitude being displayed. (Of course, the contrary point-of-view is that the Chinese government has trepidations of allowing thousands of foreign relief aid workers throughout the country.)
Finally, there is the "Tibet problem". Although China has recently stated that it will meet with a representative of the Dalai Lama, I'm sure that it can now use the recent earthquake - and their helping of the Chinese people - as a convenient excuse to stop talks. We shall see what happens in the next few days, I suppose.
Perhaps if there is another set of natural disasters, the country will have to take more and more seriously the inequalities of the richer Eastern coastal area versus the relatively poorer and rural vast remainder of the country. A poor way of obtaining rights and governmental benefits, to be sure, but when there is no democratic oversight, nor fair representation for the countryside, to whom else but the heavens can people turn?
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