China's shifting student death toll from quake angers parents
Officials say 19,000 students died in May's 7.9-magnitude quake, then immediately back away from that estimate.
Reporting from Beijing — Jiang Xujun felt the stab of his daughter's death all over again today when Chinese officials acknowledged for the first time that 19,000 students perished in May's deadly earthquake -- and then immediately backed off the estimate.
Jiang used his bare hands to dig the body of his 7-year-old daughter, Jiang Yao, from the rubble of her primary school. Since then, he has fought the government for compensation for the death and assistance in finding a new home.
The months have brought only misery. On Friday, Chinese officials added insult to Jiang's injury.
At a news conference on preparations for the winter in the quake zone, Wei Hong, executive vice governor of Sichuan, gave the student death toll as 19,065 -- nearly a quarter of the total death count -- a figure that was immediately quoted in stories by Chinese state-run and foreign news services.
Soon, however, an officer from the Sichuan provincial propaganda office said an official translation at the news conference misconstrued Wei's remarks. He said the 19,065 figure was the total number of earthquake victims who have been identified.
For many, including the angry parents of children who died when their unstable schools collapsed, the about-face spoke volumes of how Chinese officials deal with sensitive revelations: a moment of candor followed by a contradictory reversal.
A Xinhua news agency report of the news conference reported Wei's original remarks, but a second story on the state-run site claimed his estimate referred to a detailed list of identified dead and not specifically students.
A veteran reporter for the China Youth Daily today said it was still confusing whether Wei inadvertently released the real student death toll number, or was misquoted.
"I don't know whether it's true or not," he said. "I have been to several earthquake zones, and I only know the death toll there, but for an overall death toll, I really have no way to know."
For months following the 7.9-magnitude quake, officials had declined to offer a precise toll of the number of students who died. The topic has raised the ire of many Sichuan residents who watched schools collapse while other nearby buildings suffered little damage.
"We don't trust the local government, they are too deceptive," said Jiang, a 37-year-old former home-renovator. "School buildings are of shoddy construction. I am afraid the real number of dead students is more than 19,000."
