Parents of the estimated 10,000 children who lost their lives in the quake have grown so enraged about collapsed schools that they have overcome their usual caution about confronting Communist Party officials.Curtsy to Instapundit, who observes:
I suspect that the one-child policy is amplifying the effects here.
Our friend ninme had the parents-united-against-the-Commies story a while ago, with loads of links to stuff like this from Time:
“It was built out of tofu,” says Hu Yuefu, 44, of the school building that collapsed in the magnitude 7.9 quake and killed his 15-year-old daughter Huishan. He believes local government officials and the building contractors are responsible. As he speaks, a crowd gathers around to listen and offer their support. “I hope there is an investigation,” Hu says. “Otherwise, there are a thousand parents who would beat them to death.”
But the one-child angle was new.
As to Chinese construction, our friend Brett McS remarked in a comment at ninme's at the time:
Chinese construction techniques tend to emphasize speed over quality. We tested our locomotive bogie frame (built in Australia) in a test rig in the Czech Republic. It passed handily. The exact same design was built by our partners in China (under license) and then tested. It cracked half-way through the test (this was a few weeks ago). Our people went over there and were able to identify a number of short-cuts they had taken in construction which contributed to the failure. So, “Made in China” still signifies ‘dodgy’. They don’t even seem to be interested in following the path that the Japanese used to turn “Made in Japan” into the stamp of quality it is today, cf Back to the Future, part III.Fear not, noble Chinese people, your government wants to show it cares, even if not enough to take elementary construction precautions so the roof won't fall on you. I think you'll agree the Party-announced earthquake-inspired amendments to the one-child policy are generosity itself.
- If you had an illegal extra child killed in the earthquake, you don't have to continue paying fines on him.
- If you have an illegal extra child but your legal child was killed, you may register your illegal child as a legal child.
- If you lost your one legal child, you can apply for a certificate of permission to legally conceive an emergency back-up child (We forcibly sterilized you after your first child? How sad for you).
All heart! Here's one policy change that is nice, though. There are some 4000 children orphaned by the quake, and the Chinese have apparently been eager to adopt them (a fact suggestive in itself, no?).
there are no limits on the number of earthquake orphans a family can adopt. The adoptions, or even a future birth to a family that adopts an orphan, will not face the limitations of the one-child policy.
