The government now faces a tricky predicament: Having loosened its restraints
on information flow this time, a return to its old ways at the next sign of
difficulty could backfire.
“The government should learn a positive lesson: When it allows freer
information flow it is better for its image and legitimacy,” Mr. Xiao said. “But
this will not always be a case, especially if the next crisis is man-made
China’s online censors can be merciless in their deletion of blog postings or
forum comments that are deemed “too sensitive,” particularly involving anything
to do with the so-called “Three T’s”: Tiananmen, Tibet and Taiwan.
Post-earthquake negativity, though, has been tolerated. “Nine billion yuan
[$1.3 billion] has been raised but how much will actually get to the disaster
zone?” one skeptical commenter asked on a forum on Baidu, China’s leading search
engine.
Discussions focusing on discrepancies between the amount of donations
declared by the Chinese Red Cross and the corresponding numbers issued by the
Ministry of Civil Affairs also have met with minimal interference, Mr. Kennedy
said.
However, the government has not turned a blind eye. More than a dozen people
have been arrested for “spreading rumors” online, and political blogger Guo Quan
was detained for questioning the risks posed by cracked dams and damaged nuclear
facilities.
Furthermore, China will be tested for its willingness and ability to play a more
active international role, commensurate to its growing world-power status.
While it is understandable that the Chinese public has been emotionally involved
in such a calamity so close to home, the country will command universal respect
when its government and its citizens display as much care to other humanitarian
crises around the world as they have at home.
Much of the volunteer effort has involved individuals or small groups. China
is still wary of large NGOs and has none that is truly
independent of the government specialising in disaster relief. But in recent
years the party has begun to acknowledge more openly that there may a role for
them. Official press coverage of the earthquake, although careful to highlight
the party's contributions, has also paid rare tribute to the unofficial
volunteers.
The government has been encouraging firms to give more generously to worthy
causes. From this year it has increased tax incentives for corporate donations
to charities. But this applies to only a small number of government-approved
organisations. For the sake of earthquake relief the authorities are letting
down their guard. But the government gives little encouragement to new NGOs and often treats the small existing ones as potential
germs of political opposition. The response to this disaster might ease its
fears.