SHANGHAI — As unusually heavy snowfall and cold weather continued over much of the country on Wednesday, China’s government stepped up emergency efforts to handle a crisis that threatens to become as much public relationslogistical one. Continuing his tour of areas that have been heavily afflicted by the severe winter weather, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao flew to the southern city of Guangzhou (pronounced: gwäng-jo), where over 600,000 travelers had been stranded by the suspension of normal train services. "The weather has brought a lot of inconvenience to everyone and has led to time delays," Mr. Wen said, after wading into the crowds of would-be travelers who had been left stuck at Guangzhou’s main train station ahead of next week’s important Lunar New Year holiday. They were stranded after large numbers of trains that operate on heavily traveled north-south routes were paralyzed by power outages earlier in the week. "This has been very hard on everyone,” Mr. Wen said. “Currently every level of government is working on getting electricity restored, and after that transport will resume." With weather forecasts projecting several more days of difficult weather, and the official Xinhua news agency speaking of the need to wage "all out war" on the weather disaster, President Hu Jintao sounded a more cautious note than his prime minister. Mr. Hu urged officials to "be aware of the seriousness of the situation and be fully prepared to prevent and fight disasters." In another indication of the seriousness of the crisis, about 460,000 People’s Liberation Army troops and paramilitary forces were dispatched to areas worst hit by the heavy snows to help clear roads, restore power and conduct other relief operations, Xinhua reported. So far, about 50 people are reported to have died as a result of the storms, including 25 people who were killed when a bus plunged off of an icy road Tuesday in Guizhou Province. Here and there, signs were emerging that despite the government’s declared move to a war footing, people were becoming sharply critical of its response to the emergency. "In Hunan, it started snowing on the 13th," wrote an online commentator who signed his name Running Lezhi. "Why is it that this was left to traffic policeman and ordinary street cleaners until yesterday, when the army was mobilized?" Another online critic wrote about the lack of relief for drivers in stranded cars on snowbound highways. "The scenes on CCTV are so harmonious," he wrote, sarcastically, referring to China Central Television. "They show ambulances on Jingzhu Highway with voice-over saying they’re all over the place, and a woman sitting in a car says the service stations felt as warm as home. Shame on you!" Altogether, more than 5 million people in Guizhou, Hubei and Jiangxi Provinces have had water supplies cut off, and many areas have suffered an interruption of electricity supply. "The temperature is minus two or three and we’re sitting in the darkness, with only candles to burn, and we’re almost out of them," said Yang Tongping, a resident of Jinping County, one of the hardest hit areas of Guizhou Province. "There’s no telling when the electricity will come back on, but I don’t expect it will be soon, because they say they can’t fix the grid until it stops snowing," said Mr. Yang, who spoke by telephone and said his area had already been snowbound for half a month. "We’re burning wood to keep the house warm and we’re just lucky were in the countryside, where people keep some rice and vegetables on hand." As the capital of Guangdong Province, home to the largest numbers of migrant workers in China, the situation in Guangzhou poses particularly sticky problems for the Chinese government, which not only faces the risk of unrest if the crisis isn’t quickly resolved, but also a serious blow to its prestige among ordinary people. The unusually cold weather patterns, which included the worst snows in 50 years in some parts of central China, and even snow in the south, which generally remains warm, couldn’t have come at a worse time, arriving on the eve of the Lunar New Year, when hundreds of millions of Chinese travel home for the year’s most important holiday, the annual Spring Festival. For many factory workers in Guangdong Province, Spring Festival is the only time of the year when they can get sufficient leave to make the long trek home to the poor, heavily populated central provinces most call home. On Wednesday, banners could be seen throughout the large Guangzhou rail station where Mr. Wen spoke urging migrant workers to abandon their travel plans, seek refunds for their train tickets and return to their factory dormitories. So far, about 200,000 of them have followed that advice, according to railway officials, while another estimated 200,000 people have remained at the station, clinging to hopes of getting aboard the first trains that return to service. "What’s the meaning of asking people to abstain from Spring Festival?" wrote one online commentator. "Whenever problems arise, their first action is to ask people to suffer and understand. Haven’t they ever considered the damage caused to railways and roads when extreme natural disasters take place? Haven’t there been any tests?" While the scene at the Guangzhou station, where authorities have preventively stationed large special security detachments, has remained orderly, signs of discontent over the handling of the crisis have been building, particularly online. Many people have criticized the lack of disaster preparation and what they regard as the primitive means available for maintaining clear roads and ice-free power lines. "What caused 600,000 people to be stranded at the train station?" wrote one angry online commentator."It’s not because of heavy snow for days, nor is it the delayed or canceled bus service. The problem is our old, two-track urban-rural divide ."
question 1
2
3 <