Angry Chinese Demanding Punishment to Corrupted Officials

From:NTDTV May 23, 2008
The fragility of schools that collapsed in China's earthquake has aroused widespread claims that corruption compromised the strength of the school buildings. Hundreds of parents of children killed in Juyuan College are launching petitions to demand an answer.


STORY:
Forty four year old Zhao Deqin has set up a kerbside memorial to her twin daughters. They were killed when their school collapsed in China's 7.8 earthquake.

There's a petition signing site has become
a gathering place for parents. They're angry that sub-standard construction work may have killed their children.

The shrine-like memorial has wreaths for the deceased children of Juyuan Middile School as well as recent photographs of Zhao's twin 15 year old daughters, Yajia and Yaqi.

Across the earthquake-struck region, schools seemed to be the worst hit, killing thousands of students as the schools collapsed on the children studying inside.

[Zhao Deqin, Mother of Earthquake Victims]:
"We want to seek an explanation for our deceased children. The school was a tofu-dregs school. No other building except the one housing classrooms collapsed at the school. Now there are a lot of students dead, and as their parents, we feel immensely sad."
She refers to messy remnants left over when making tofu, or beancurd, a common Chinese term for shoddy workmanship and poor materials.

Zhao's husband, Qu Zhaoyong stands nearby. He's washing old plates found in the rubble, looking on as he takes in the reality of the loss of his twin daughters. In China, families with twins are considered most fortunate considering the country's strict one child policy.

[Qu Zhaoyong, Father of Earthquake Victims]:
"Now there are only two of us left in the family. We have no one left, our children are gone. The two of them, our twins, died in the school collapse, they are dead."

Zhao says hundreds of grieving parents in Juyuan have met and circulated petitions demanding punishment of officials or builders responsible for shoddy schools.

Asked what she wanted most, Zhao, like many of the other parents, says they seek official recognition that the children's deaths are due to more than random natural destruction.

Zhao's twin daughters attended Juyuan Middle School and were in a six-level building of classrooms that collapsed, killing more than 500 of the school's 1,300 pupils.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• china
• earthquake
• sharon
• stone
• Karma
• tofu
• building
• children
• beijing
• olympics
• 2008
• obama
• clinton

[ab3k1nz]

the country and the people are nice, but the government is fuckd up

[plato31]

I think Chinese people are offended because they know that there is truth in this joke. And the truth hurts. China is an extraordinary revelation into how selfish, cruel and aggressive humanity can be. I know some people may think that I am racist - but I travelled to China with an open mind and a love of people. I left not disliking Chinese but being ashamed to be human. We are all the same. Black, white and yellow. But the Chinese really showed me so close to my face how low us humans can go.

[coltec111]

@wavyriver you should be shameful for your nescience of your own culture.

[coltec111]

@wavyriver chinese culture is a culture of individual competition coming from their mandarin exam system that also formed an competitive conscience or individualisation of society. for western culture from religion or crusadism, in the same tribe, help each other is normal, but for chinese, they must resolve all difficulty by themself; selfish? as a tribe, the western countries are all selfish. if u have no idea about a culture nontribal, stop ur stupid smug comment about chinese.

[coltec111]

@plato31 chinese culture is a culture of individual competition coming from their mandarin exam system that also formed an competitive conscience or individualisation of society. for western culture from religion or crusadism, in the same tribe, help each other is normal, but for chinese, they must resolve all difficulty by themself; selfish? as a tribe, the western countries are all selfish. if u have no idea about a culture nontribal, stop ur stupid smug comment about chinese.

[wavyriver]

@plato31 You damn right about the selfish people in China. I am Chinese but I still think China has the most fucked up Chinese people. If it wasn't for Hong Kong and Taiwan, Asia would be filled with Fucked up Chinese people.

[mindawareness]

@androidtv when i came in power in taiwan.i command taiwan national army and fight back to china!!!

[Weitingxp]

@plato31 How bout this i know you are not trying to be racist but it's not the chinese fault it's the corrupt government in china that are affecting the people

[Topazman12]

For those who don't know. The Chinese citizens know corruption is rampant. Safety officials were bribed to ignore safety protocols. People who demanded action earlier were jailed. Now that the earthquake had happened they even arrested the survivors for demanding justice. The Chinese Communist Party must take responsibility.

[PakistaniisPower]

I love China, China is so sweet. Went ther 5 times and loved every moment of it. Best country I've ever been to.