16 Years After Sichuan Earthquake, Families of Victims Gather in Afflicted Areas; Police Watch for Anti-Government Sentiment

By Miho Tamura / Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent

16:24 JST, May 14, 2024

Sunday marked the 16th anniversary of the earthquake that struck Sichuan Province, China, and left about 87,000 people dead or missing. Families of victims gathered on the day in the affected areas to mourn.

About 200 families assembled near the site of Juyuan Middle School in Dujiangyan, Sichuan Province, before 2:28 p.m., the time the earthquake occurred. About 300 people, mostly students, died at the school when the building collapsed.

There has been criticism that the building had collapsed due to shoddy work, and the families have been demanding accountability from those responsible. More than 100 police officers and others at the site were on the lookout to see if the gathering would turn into a protest against the government.

Some of the families were unable to suppress their emotions and argued with the authorities. A 53-year-old woman who lost her eldest daughter, then a third-grade middle school student, expressed her anger: “My precious child was sacrificed.”

State media official social networking accounts emphasized on Sunday that the disaster-affected areas had recovered. On the same day, the U.S. government-affiliated Radio Free Asia noted that the Chinese government was insistent about recovery and shut down criticism.

Another memorial ceremony was held Sunday morning in front of a collapsed middle school that became an earthquake heritage site in Yingxiu, Wenchuan County, Ngawa Tibetan Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, the epicenter of the earthquake. Local government officials and others mourned the victims.