Published: May 14, 2008 12:20 pm            

Professor, student worry for loved ones in China after quake

EDMOND — A University of Central Oklahoma professor is concerned about several close friends who were in the areas affected by the reported 7.9-magnitude earthquake that rocked central China on Monday.

Xiao Bing Li, a UCO Asian, U.S. and diplomatic history professor, said he has been unable to contact two close friends, one of them a former professor at the University of Oklahoma. Li said the former OU professor resides in Chengdu, located in hard-hit Sichuan province.

“I have had no contact with my friends,” Li said. “It is very hard to reach them right now because of the situation over there.”

Chengdu, which has a population of about 10 million, has been a governmental and cultural center since at least 400 B.C., according to the U.S. State Department. The death toll from the earthquake, centered in the Wenchuan area, continues to rise. The Associated Press reported this morning the total number of deaths had risen to 15,000 with tens of thousands more buried or missing.

Li said the reports about the students who were killed when their schools collapsed were particularly distressing. Li said he also is concerned that the earthquake hit in a mountainous region, where the infrastructure is less than modern. It is an area with a minority Tibetan population, he said, alluding to the occasional political friction between Tibet and China.

Also keeping an eye on the relief effort in China is Dake Zhang, a UCO student. Zhang said when he first heard the news he was concerned about his girlfriend’s parents, who live close to the epicenter, in Chengdu. Zhang said his girlfriend has communicated with her parents, who are OK, but one of their properties in the area suffered some damage.

Zhang, from a large city in northeast China, said he has been monitoring the news coverage, seeing images of the devastation on the Internet and on television.

“It is a great tragedy,” Zhang said. “I feel really bad.”

Zhang said his girlfriend had booked a flight home, but he suggested that she stay in a city outside the affected area, perhaps his hometown. Zhang said he will take classes this summer at UCO.

Li, from Beijing, said the earthquake, while a tragedy, presents the Chinese government with a good opportunity for showing the world that its system of governing works. In recent months, the world has been paying more attention to Beijing, site of the 2008 Olympic Games. He said the Chinese government is doing a good job of mobilizing relief workers and sending supplies into the affected areas.

Li said the Chinese government has been more proactive than Myanmar’s junta, which has been slow to let aid supplies and international relief workers into the nation formerly known as Burma.

On May 2, the tropical cyclone Nargis hit the coast of Myanmar and devastated large parts of the low-lying delta region of the Irrawaddy River. Hurricane-force winds battered Myanmar’s biggest city, Yangon, for more than 10 hours, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies reports. United Nations estimates have the death toll there exceeding 100,000.

        

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