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16 April 2010
TIME magazine interviews GPPi Research Associate on Beijing's crisis management in the wake of the Qinghai earthquake
On 15 April 2010, GPPi Research Associate Björn Conrad commented on China's disaster response in the wake of the major earthquake that claimed several hundred lives in China's Qinghai province. His input informed a TIME magazine article entitled "China's Quake: Avoiding the Political Aftershocks".
Conrad observed that over the last few years the Chinese central leadership has not only changed the style of its response to national emergencies with regards to media transparency and individual engagement of political leaders, but it has also significantly streamlined and improved its disaster response capabilities and management system.
He argued that in the aftermath of the ill-managed crises and strong public dissatisfaction during the SARS epidemic in 2003, the management of large-scale emergency situations has prominently entered the set of indicators that Chinese public opinion uses to evaluate the central government's performance. Adequate disaster response has become a sizable factor in securing the Communist Party's political legitimacy, facilitating the considerable expansion of China's disaster response capability in recent years.
To read the full article, please click here.
For a more comprehensive analysis of this development see Andrea Binder and Björn Conrad (2009), "China's Potential Role in Humanitarian Assistance", GPPi Policy Paper No. 5.
For more information, please contact Björn Conrad