BEIJING (AP) China's deadliest earthquake in a generation has jarred Chinese who expected to be reveling in anticipation of the Beijing Olympics. In less dramatic ways, the disaster is shifting perceptions between China and the world, deflating the contentiousness building around the games.
Newspaper front pages and all-news television around the world have filled with sympathetic coverage since the quake battered a vast, mountainous area, killing tens of thousands. The authoritarian Chinese government's rapid, full-throttle rescue and the unprecedented flow of news it has allowed have enabled ordinary Chinese and foreigners to share in the immense tragedy.
More than just knocking bad press about the Beijing games out of the news, the disaster has given China and the world a chance to reassess.
Foreign audiences, especially in the West, are empathizing with the Chinese perhaps more than any at time since democracy demonstrators occupied Tiananmen Square 19 years ago. At the same time, the quake's devastation has diminished the importance for Chinese of Olympics in August and the accolades from abroad that a spectacular Games was supposed to bring.
"This is a turning point. We're seeing a reconciliation," said Wenran Jiang, a Chinese politics expert at the University of Alberta.
Foreign leaders are sending condolences and aid, instead of discussing boycotts of the Olympics.
The atmosphere is markedly less rancorous than a few weeks ago when an uprising by Tibetans against China's rule and rowdy protests overseas against the Olympic torch relay seemed to expose vast differences in the ways Chinese and foreigners viewed the world.
For Chinese, the Olympics was supposed to be a crowning moment, signifying China's full acceptance by the international community after decades of isolation and then decades of economic catch-up. The government gave it a grandiose buildup, running the torch to all corners of the globe and the top of Mount Everest.
For foreigners, China's suppression of the Tibet protests brought reminders of the military's crushing of the 1989 Tiananmen protests, dashing hopes that awarding Beijing the Olympics had inspired tolerance and change.
The result: angry and violent protests for the torch and a furious backlash from Chinese. By early May, China's standing in the West plummeted. Online surveys in the United States and Europe found that Americans disapproved of Beijing hosting the Olympics, while Europeans said China had overtaken the United States as the greatest threat to global stability. Chinese were issuing death threats against Western media and calling for boycotts of French goods.
While the earthquake has dispelled those tensions, they could still resurface in the 81 days until the Aug. 8 start of the games. Foreign pressure groups have not announced any scale-back in plans to use the Olympic spotlight to induce Beijing to change policies on human rights, press freedom, Sudan's Darfur region and other issues. Pro-Tibet groups reported fresh rounds of detentions and protests in Tibetan areas early this month.
But China has done much right in the wake of the earthquake. Responding to public grief, the government reversed course, toning down what had been a boisterous, triumphal torch relay through China to include a moment of silence.
Its decision to allow a freer flow of information on the quake has been rewarded with an outpouring of support. Donations have flooded in $860 million as of Saturday, according to the government news agency Xinhua.
Aside from money, ordinary Chinese have bought medicines, food, blankets, loaded up their private cars and driven to the disaster areas, where they have helped in the rescue.
For the first time, Beijing accepted not just foreign aid but allowed specialized rescue teams from Japan, Russia, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan to operate in China. And state media have widely publicized their efforts.
The overall effect is an unheard of degree of participation by Chinese and foreigners in a matter disaster relief that the communist leadership has long preferred to manage alone as proof it is capable of handling China's affairs and providing for its people.
"The earthquake has brought the best out of the Chinese government and Chinese people and demonstrated the regime and the Chinese are capable of working together to build up a better future," said Xu Guoqi, a historian at Kalamazoo College in Michigan and author of the recently published book "Olympic Dreams: China and Sports, 1895-2008."
The comparison that some Chinese make is to Sept. 11, 2001, when a spirit of volunteerism and patriotism buoyed Americans after the terror attacks.
Many overseas in the West may not be ready to accept the communist leadership as a force for good; it still persecutes people for political activism or religious beliefs. But in the wake of earthquake, it is being recognized for doing some good.
Charles Hutzler is The Associated Press bureau chief in Beijing.
