| Leaders' visits boost morale amid China's winter-weather crisis | ||||||||||
| 2008/02/05 |
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BEIJING, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Amid China's worst snow disaster in decades, the Chinese leaders have shown the public a hands-on approach by visiting people working on the front lines of the weather crisis. As of Friday, five of the nine members of the Standing Committee of the CPC Central Committee's Political Bureau had visited people fighting disasters at front line or working in coalmines and ports supporting the relief work.
Commissioned by General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Hu Jintao, Jia Qinglin, Xi Jinping and Zhou Yongkang had paid visits to snow and ice hit Anhui, Guizhou and Henan Provinces to boost the morale of snow fighters and guide relief work. Jia Qinglin stressed that local governments should maintain normal supply of gasoline and natural gas.
Jia, who is also China's top political advisor, asked advisory bodies at the local level to offer more suggestions on disaster relief. Xi Jinping visited snow-hit villages and the provincial capital Guiyang to make sure that common people could enjoy a safe and happy Spring Festival.
Zhou Yongkang praised Henan for its contributions to disaster relief in other parts of the country by opening all entrances and exits on expressways in the province and providing support to transit vehicles. Henan also provided coal and electricity to other provinces despite its own power shortage and sent staffs and equipments to southern snow-hit provinces to assist disaster relief.
After chairing two key meetings in as many days in Beijing, President Hu Jintao took an inspection tour on Thursday to coal fields in Datong of Shanxi Province and Qinhuangdao Port in Hebei province, through which much of Shanxi's coal is shipped. Hu entered a coal mine more than 400 meters underground, taking an elevator down to meet miners of the Datangtashan coal mine co-op in Datong who had worked overtime in temperatures of minus 20 degrees Celsius to increase supply. "Disaster-hit areas need coal and the power plants need coal," Hu told administrators and workers of the mine, saying that coal supply had been a crucial part in fighting the snow disaster. At the side of a facility that transfers coal to vessels in Qinhuangdao Port, Hu told dockworkers to maintain all equipment in good condition and improve the efficiency of coal transportation to vessels. Power in much of central and southern China has been disrupted by the winter weather and its ensuing effects on coal transport. The snow, the heaviest in decades in many places, has been falling in east, central and south China for more than a fortnight. It has caused deaths, structural collapses, blackouts, accidents, transport problems and livestock and crop destruction. Premier Wen Jiabao was also on the road for much of the past five days. Wen flew out of Beijing on Monday night to Hunan Province but had to land at Tianhe Airport in neighboring Hubei Province because of the bad weather. He completed his journey by train and arrived in Changsha City, the provincial capital, on Tuesday morning. In Changsha railway station, Wen offered early Spring Festival wishes to stranded passengers. "I am deeply apologetic that you are stranded in the railway station and not able to go home earlier," Wen told the passengers through a megaphone. "We are now doing our best to fix things up and you will all be home for the Spring Festival." On Wednesday morning, he arrived in the southern city of Guangzhou, where he reassured stranded rail passengers that the government would try its best to make sure they got home for Lunar New Year family reunions. "The Premier was in Hubei the day before yesterday and in Hunan yesterday. I do not expect him to come to Guangzhou today despite the rain. I feel warmth in my heart," said a passenger. Shortly after chairing a meeting on Friday morning in Beijing on disaster relief, Wen flew to Hunan for another time on Friday afternoon to direct relief work. Chinese netizens filled online bulletin boards with heartwarming words to express how moved they were by the leaders' visits. "After watching the Premier's visits on TV, I feel greatly encouraged," said a netizen whose IP address was from Hebei Province, "I firmly believe that there is no reason we can not fight back against the disaster." Daniel Cotterall of New Zealand, who is living in Beijing, said that he saw on television the news that Wen went to train stations, telling people not to panic. "The Premier's visit among the public was great and typical of Premier Wen's style. He was interested in people's real problems, especially those of farmers and migrant workers," Cotterall said. |
