It’s a little bit funny how right after the Sichuan earthquake, some people were saying there should be investigations into shoddy construction while others were saying, basically, shut up and mourn. But now the former group is getting more vocal.

From the NY Times:

Bereaved parents whose children were crushed to death in their classrooms during the earthquake in Sichuan Province have turned mourning ceremonies into protests in recent days, forcing officials to address growing political repercussions over shoddy construction of public schools.

Parents of the estimated 10,000 children who lost their lives in the quake have grown so enraged about collapsed schools that they have overcome their usual caution about confronting Communist Party officials. Many say they are especially upset that some schools for poor students crumbled into rubble even though government offices and more elite schools not far away survived the May 12 quake largely intact.

On Tuesday, an informal gathering of parents at Juyuan Middle School in Dujiangyan to commemorate their children gave way to unbridled fury.

Some parents said local officials had known for years that the school was unsafe but refused to take action.

The protests threaten to undermine the government’s attempts to promote its response to the quake as effective and to highlight heroic rescue efforts by the People’s Liberation Army, which has dispatched 150,000 soldiers to the region. Censors have blocked detailed reporting of the schools controversy by the state-run media, but a photo of Mr. Jiang kneeling before protesters has become a sensation on some Web forums, bringing national attention to the incident.

One of China’s boldest magazines, the business journal Caijing, used its main commentary article in its latest issue to call on the government to step up investigations of faulty school construction. Xinhua, the official news agency, also issued a commentary saying a speedy official response was warranted.

The authorities in Beijing appear to recognize the delicacy of the issue. On Monday, a spokesman for the Education Ministry, Wang Xuming, promised a reassessment of school buildings in quake zones, adding that those responsible for cutting corners on school construction would be “severely punished.”

To my mind, aside from a thousand other things, this also points out the complete nonsense in Regina Ip’s recent SCMP column, which I commented on a couple of items back. Because, first of all, it shows that Chinese do actually speak up and participate and protest when there is something that they care deeply about. And in no small part, the corruption that led to the shoddy construction, the unmitigated greed, the attitude of “fuck everyone else as long as I get rich” – is clearly a by-product of an appointed government that doesn’t have to worry about keeping their jobs by standing for re-election. Construction standards were in place. They were purposely not followed and those who should have enforced them only cared about lining their own pockets. They are not answerable to the general population and don’t need to worry about them … until disaster strikes.