China promises rebuilding fund
Still living under makeshift shelters of scrap wood and nylon tarps on Wednesday — 10 days after the quake — 70 farmers in the mountain town of Xinhua pressed against the locked gate of the local government compound, demanding tents. Ten soldiers in camouflage guarded the fortress-like compound.
"The government said they would deliver more tents last night. But we never got them. It rained last night and it looks like it will rain again tonight," said one farmer in his 50s who only gave his surname, Zhou. His family of five, including his 80-year-old mother, was living in a rickety lean-to.
Although Beijing has mounted an energetic military mobilization in response to a quake that has left an estimated 50,000 dead and 5 million homeless across Sichuan province, the immense challenge means help is not arriving fast enough.
Mindful of the problem and the growing discontent, Premier Wen Jiabao announced a $10 billion reconstruction fund and ordered all agencies to cut spending by 5 percent to free up already budgeted money, state media reported. Wen also called a halt to new state building projects.
Only one rescue was reported — that of 35-year-old Cui Changhui trapped for 216 hours in a water diversion tunnel at a hydropower plant construction site. In a further sign of dwindling hopes, rescue work had all but ceased in the obliterated town of Beichuan and workers poured disinfectant over the site, perhaps in preparation, one rescue worker said, for demolition. For much of the past two days, authorities have kept the media away from Beichuan.
The confirmed death toll from the earthquake rose to 41,353 and another 32,666 remained missing, said a spokesman for the Cabinet.
In the last day of a three-day national mourning period, the communist government was also reverting to well-tested methods to impose its authority.
A message of unity in the face of adversity was prominent in state media and on the streets of the hard-hit city of Shifang. Huge billboards stood in the shopping district in the center of the city, showing pictures of the quake's damage, including collapsed buildings and injured people. A huge slogan read: "Everyone come together with one heart."
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