LUCHI, China – Hao Lin had already lied to his wife about his destination, hopped a plane to Chengdu, borrowed a bike and pedaled through the countryside in shorts and leather loafers by the time he reached this ravaged farming village. A psychologist, Hao had come to offer free counseling to earthquake survivors.
He had company. A busload of volunteers in matching red hats was bumping along the village's rutted dirt road. Employees from a private company in Chengdu were cleaning up a town around the bend. Other volunteers from around China had already delivered food, water and sympathy.
“I haven't done this before,” said Hao, 36, as he straddled his mountain bike Saturday evening. “Ordinary people now understand how to take action on their own.”
From the moment the earthquake struck May 12, the Chinese government dispatched soldiers, police officers and rescue workers in the type of mass mobilization expected of the ruling Communist Party. But an unexpected mobilization, prompted partly by unusually vigorous and dramatic coverage of the disaster in the state-run news media, has come from outside official channels. Thousands of Chinese have streamed into the quake region or donated record sums of money in a striking and unscripted public response.
Beijing is instinctively wary of public activism and has long maintained tight restrictions on private charities and religious, social and environmental groups that operate outside government control. The public outpouring is so overwhelming that analysts are debating whether it will create political aftershocks and place pressure on China's authoritarian state to allow more space for civil society.
When the quake struck, party officials initially assigned oversight of private relief efforts to the Communist Youth League, the political base of President Hu Jintao. But many individuals, corporations and nongovernmental organizations simply rushed into action to supplement what they say is an overburdened Chinese Red Cross or to help with the rescue, according to representatives of some private citizens' groups.
Faced with the potential for a humanitarian crisis, officials loosened their grip. They have since begun warning volunteers to stay out of the earthquake zone, citing safety concerns. But thousands are already there.
Yesterday, panic erupted in the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu and in Mianyang after provincial television issued a warning of the possibility of a severe aftershock of as much as 6.7 magnitude.
Near midnight in Chengdu, thousands of people trying to evacuate the city by car became mired in gridlock, stuck bumper-to-bumper in clotted streets. Other people quickly gathered blankets and rushed outside, planning to sleep on the street or in neighborhood parks.
In Mianyang, one of the areas hardest-hit by last week's earthquake, guests were evacuated from hotels, joining the masses in the streets.
There were more remarkable rescues yesterday. A 31-year-old man was pulled out of the debris of a flattened power plant near the epicenter, after being buried for 179 hours, Xinhua said.
A 50-year-old woman was pulled from the rubble of a residential building near a coal mine in Hanwang Township, the government said. In Beichuan County, a 61-year-old woman who was trapped in debris for about 145 hours was also rescued Monday morning, officials said.
The confirmed death toll was raised to 34,000 yesterday, and the government said the figure could reach 50,000.
