Devastating Earthquake in Jishishan County, Gansu Province: Tragic Revelation of Rural Poverty in China

2023-12-25 12:42:27

An earthquake of magnitude 6.2 occurred late at night on December 18 in Jishishan County, Linxia Prefecture, Gansu Province, China. The picture shows an aerial photo of Dahejia Town in Jishishan County following the earthquake on December 19. (AFP)

[The Epoch Times, December 25, 2023](Reported by Epoch Times reporter Xiao Lusheng) Hundreds of thousands of houses were damaged following the earthquake in Jishishan County, Gansu Province. The CCP once claimed that the local area had been lifted out of poverty, but the tragic earthquake revealed the truth. Photos from the scene showed that many houses were made of loess. Local people said that if it were not for the earthquake, “no one would know how poor we are here.”

At 11:59 in the middle of the night on December 18, a 6.2-magnitude earthquake occurred in Jishishan County, Linxia Prefecture, Gansu Province, causing a large number of casualties and damaging hundreds of thousands of houses. Pictures from the scene show that many local adobe houses collapsed, many of which were made of loess embryos.

The WeChat public account “Uncle Bing Chats” posted that the earthquake in Gansu allowed the Chinese people to see the true face of rural poverty. “In the disaster areas, the housing standards of the victims are still stuck in the 1980s and 1990s, or even in the 1950s and 1960s.” ”. Some netizens criticized, “What kind of houses are these? They are completely made of loess embryos. How can such a house withstand earthquakes?” Some netizens questioned, “What regarding the promised rural revitalization? Where have all the funds allocated by superiors gone?” It’s really incredible.”

After the 6.2-magnitude earthquake occurred in Gansu on December 19, 2023, local residents’ houses were severely damaged. (Jia Shengyang/VCG via Getty Images △)

A 77-year-old low-income householder told the Beijing Youth Daily, “If it weren’t for this (earthquake), no one would know how poor we are here.” The victim lives with his wife and granddaughter in a cement-brick house.

The walls of the three main houses and three side houses of Mahailin’s family in Chenjia Village, Jishishan County are all built with homemade mud and adobe bricks. The roofs are made of wooden sticks and planks, and then covered with a layer of tiles. The main house was built seventeen or eighteen years ago, and the side house was built earlier. After the earthquake, the wall collapsed toward the outside of the house. The bricks and wood of the side room fell down, and Ma Hailin was trapped underneath. When he was carried out, Ma Hailin was not breathing.

Jishishan County in Gansu Province was once one of the 23 extremely poor counties in Gansu Province. In 2019, the authorities claimed that 13,546 people in 2,989 households in the county had been lifted out of poverty. In 2020, they also announced that “the remaining 2,821 people in 630 households in the county have all been lifted out of poverty.”

Several villages near Dahejia Town in Jishishan County are in a similar situation. A reporter from Caixin.com went to the scene and found “almost no houses without collapse or cracks.” The most serious casualties were in Chenjia Village. The villagers who died were all killed by collapsed houses. The party secretaries of Chenjia Village and Hanshanjia Village said that 80% of the local houses are uninhabitable, totaling more than 1,000 households.

This article published by Caixin.com on the 22nd attracted public attention and was blocked by the authorities.

Editor in charge: Li Yuanrui#

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