China Admits To Substandard Construction

China has finally admitted the obvious. Substandard construction played a huge role in the deaths of thousands in the Sichuan quakes.

The Ministry of Education report is a rare government admission of substandard school construction. The issue has been a delicate one since the earthquake, which killed 88,000 people, many of them children crushed in the rubble of shoddily built schools.

The report called on the central government to finance the reconstruction of vulnerable schools quickly, especially those in rural areas and western parts of China that are seismically unstable. Speaking about the report, Lu Yongxiang, vice chairman of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, said in an interview with the China News Service that Beijing would increase construction subsidies by 25 percent to 150 percent, depending on the region.

Mr. Lu was quoted as saying that nearly 2.5 percent of all primary and middle schools in China have structural problems, on a built area equal to 360 million square feet.

He added that 90 percent of these schools were in rural areas and the earthquake-prone west of the country. The China News Service report singled out Yunnan Province, just south of Sichuan, as having some of the most structurally unsound schools. It said 20 percent of the province’s primary schools and 11 percent of its middle schools were structurally unsound.

It's a start, but it's cold comfort for thousands of families destroyed when their children and relatives were killed as their schools collapsed all around them. The government is refusing to allow lawsuits proceed against the government.

Meanwhile, let's recall that none other than Barack Obama thought that we should look to the Chinese as a model for our infrastructure.

I'd say I'd pass on that one.