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CHINA in crisis is showing a calm, competent and compassionate side that seems to be impressing the world.
Three months before the public relations engine is to crank into action with the Olympics to showcase its arrival on the world stage, the Chinese government is already winning plaudits for its swift response to the earthquake.
The state media's blanket coverage of the 7.9-magnitude quake, and regular updates of casualty figures and rescue roadblocks, have also surprised many who are used to a Great Wall of Silence when bad news hits China.
Pictures and television clips of the rescue efforts show a side of China that impresses: workers dressed in crisp outfits and fitted with proper gear, troops in orderly contingents, nurses well-turned out in their uniforms.
Calm, organised, and compassionate - this is the compelling image that they have conveyed to the world, say observers.
The New York Times said that 'China may be having a defining moment' in its zigzag pursuit of the most effective form of authoritarian rule.
Bloomberg news agency yesterday praised the 'candour and access' given to reporters.
Minutes after the disaster struck, official news agency Xinhua was showing pictures and quoting eyewitnesses. Within a day, the government held a briefing in Beijing to provide updates on the death toll.
Two hours after the news broke on Monday, Premier Wen Jiabao boarded a plane for the disaster zone and Xinhua filed his comments from the aircraft.
Propaganda chief Li Changchun, the fifth-ranked member of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, urged the local media to do a good job in reporting the rescue efforts.
A government circular was also issued on Tuesday, asking the media to give timely and accurate reports on quake-hit regions and victims to reassure the public.
It even asked local officials to take care of reporters.
The China Central Television cancelled regular programming to go round the clock, beaming images of a tearful Mr Wen calling out: 'This is Grandpa Wen', to children buried in the rubble of a primary school.
Foreign journalists have also had free access, in sharp contrast to the Tibet riots in March when they were thrown out of the restive region.
'The government has learnt its lesson. It has realised how problematic it can be when information is not shared openly,' Dr Yang Guobin of Singapore's East Asia Institute told The Straits Times.
The 2003 Sars crisis is a classic example, he added. Officials' attempts to cover up led to widespread speculation, rumours and fear among the people.
'There were also rumours about this earthquake, but the openness of the official media caused them to die out quickly. There is a surprising sense of calm among the public,' he said.
While Chinese bloggers have seized on an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory that a geologist had predicted the quake in advance but was ignored by officials, such online criticism is being drowned out by praise.
Many more are cheering the speed of the rescue efforts and the open and transparent way in which the government is managing the crisis.
A post on popular forum Tianya read: 'I thought the government did well this time - speedy reaction and strong organisation.'
But analyst Lin Kun-Chin of the National University of Singapore warned against premature excitement over a change in the Chinese government's media policy.
'It is not that the Chinese government is more open and that the media is more relaxed,' he said. 'It is good for the image of the government that the disaster and its rescue efforts are publicised and no one official can be blamed for the earthquake.'
shpeh@sph.com.sg
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