Sichuan Earthquake Parents Continue to Mourn

The ruins of Beichuan Middle School in Sichuan Province, China are fenced off. A piece of wood with the name of the school, messily spray-painted on, now hangs on its shut gates. Today, the scene here is one that is omnipresent in many of the school buildings that were destroyed during the 8.0-magnitude earthquake last year.

It's almost a year since a vast earthquake killed thousands of students who were crushed when their classrooms collapsed into a heap of rubble.

The Communist Partys effort to silence public dissent and erase anger over the issue of the school collapses is what many here are more focused on.

Studies have shown that a strikingly higher percentage of classrooms were devastated compared to Communist Party offices or shops during the earthquake.

Parents of dead children blame shoddy construction of school buildings likened to soft "tofu dregs." They claim corrupt officials or builders pocketed money meant to build stronger classrooms.

As the one year anniversary of the earthquake approaches, China is increasingly looking to muzzle these voices of dissent and prevent any of the anger from boiling over into protests.

42-year-old Mu Cuipin lost her only son, Gan Tao, at the Beichuan Middle School last year.

[Mu Cuipin, Son Killed in Earthquake]:
"My personal opinion is that it is definitely a tofu dregs project. The school was actually designated as a national excellence project. All of the parents had requested authentication of the quality of the school building, but they were told there was no way to do it after the devastation of the earthquake. We accept that the earthquake had a part to play in the destruction but we would also like to know the proportion of metal and cement that were used for this five-story building. But the government wouldn't do this for us."

The families of the two deceased students, Chen Yu and Li Yang, think about the friendship of their two teenage sons who were good friends and classmates in Juyuan Middle School.

[Zhu Wenxiu, Son Killed in Earthquake]:
"I've been thinking about him every day for the past year. I didn't do any work in the past year. I didn't want to go anywhere. Every night when I close my eyes, I start to think about my child. Sometimes I cry all night long until dawn."

[Han Shuhua, Son Killed in Earthquake]:
"There's no hope at all left for the future. I lost my child and lost all my hope. When my child was alive, all my hope was on him. Now I lost my child and there's no hope left. There is not much meaning in my own life now."

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[SeeYouNextFall]

More communist corruption.

In China., money buys everything. Including dead children.

Down with the CCP!