Communist Party leaders in Beijing can set things right if they pass this test: they must show the country and the world the government can cope with nature's worst. Beijing is aware of the backlash that can come from a slow or ineffective response. The Administration of U.S. President George W. Bush was stained by its sluggish reaction after Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans in 2005. Beijing is also painfully conscious of the opprobrium heaped on Burma's military rulers for their callous refusal to allow the international community to help in the wake of Cyclone Nargis, which killed at least 100,000 in early May. China has "a chance to show the world that it has the capability and readiness to handle an emergency like this".

That's why President Hu Jintao called for an "all-out" response, and why Premier Wen Jiabao was on an airplane to the earthquake zone even before the aftershocks subsided. On the night of May 12, millions of Chinese watching state-owned television stations were repeatedly shown video footage of Wen rallying rescue forces, issuing orders in a driving rain, poring over maps and venturing into the ruins to assure victims still trapped that they should "hold on a little longer" as help was on the way. By the second day of the crisis, an exhausted Wen sometimes appeared to be near tears himself as he attempted to comfort yet another weeping victim.

The earthquake received blanket coverage by the Chinese media, with TV stations broadcasting almost hourly updates of the number of fatalities along with sometimes gruesome video of rescue operations, including scenes of grieving parents hovering near bloody corpses of children killed when schools collapsed.

Allowing the cameras to roll was unusual for Beijing. But far more significant was China's swift mobilization of an army of more than 100,000 relief workers, including soldiers, police and medical teams, to save those who could be saved, to provide food and shelter to those who lost everything, and to keep the peace. Chinese media on May 14 estimated that there were 25,000 people trapped in collapsed structures in the quake zone, including more than 18,000 in Mianyang, a city of 5 million. In Dujiangyan (pop. 600,000), where row after row of apartment buildings were reduced to heaps and corpses lay on the sidewalks. Military vehicles ranging from heavy trucks to jeeps, ambulances and mobile kitchens were everywhere. So were People's Liberation Army soldiers and the paramilitary People's Armed Police, who used improvised pry bars and bare hands to try to get to survivors, and who stepped in to control emotional crowds of victims' relatives.

At the collapsed Dujiangyan City Chinese Medicine Hospital, rescue workers raced death as they laboriously tried to lift crushing slabs of concrete to get to victims pinned in the debris pile. A woman waited outside for news of her seven kin who were visiting her father at the hospital when the quake struck. The woman says she heard her father call from the rubble the day of the disaster. The following morning he called out again, this time saying, "I don't think I can hold out much longer." When night fell in Dujiangyan, a loudspeaker truck cruised the streets broadcasting the same message: "Please stay calm. The State Council, the Central Committee, and the Sichuan, Chengdu and Dujiangyan governments are trying their best to help. Earthquakes are not something that mankind can avoid." Sadly not. But bungled relief operations are, and Beijing is pulling out all the stops to ensure that this time it doesn't repeat past mistakes.

 
如果中国共产党领导人经受得起这次灾难的考验，他们完全可以为自己正身：他们必须向中国，向世界证明，中国政府有能力处理好最严酷的自然灾害。他们知道，在这次事件中，如果救援迟缓或是效率低下会造成如何严重的后果。2005年，卡特里娜飓风肆虐美国新奥尔良地区，布什政府的滞缓反应让其备受百姓指责。同时，缅甸军阀政权无视纳尔吉斯气旋风暴造成该国100,000余人死亡的现状，无情拒绝国际社会给予的帮助，引来一片非议。对于中国来说，这是一个向世界展示中国处理类似紧急事件的能力和迅捷状态的大好时机。

这也就是为什么胡锦涛总书记号召“全力以赴”开展工作，为什么温家宝总理在余震尚未平息之前就星夜兼程飞往重灾区。就在5月12日晚，中央电视台向全国千百万观众一遍又一遍地播放温总理在前线召集救灾队伍的画面，他在瓢泼大雨中发布指令，他仔细查看地图研究地形，他不顾自身安危进入灾害现场，他鼓励仍然身陷废墟中的人们要“再坚持一下，我们的抢险人员马上就到。”灾难发生的第二天，满脸倦容的温总理在安慰那些泪流满面的受灾百姓的时候，自己也几近哽咽。

中国媒体对于本次地震灾情进行了全面而真实的报道，电视台近乎每小时更新灾区死伤的确切数字，播放救灾现场凄惨的画面，包括守候在从坍塌的校舍中挖出的血淋淋的孩子尸体旁的父母，悲痛欲绝的景象。

这对于中国政府来说是不寻常的，但是更加值得称道的则是中国十万多名救援人员，其中包括解放军，警察和医疗工作者，迅速行动前往灾区，挽救所有能够挽救的灾民，向衣食无着的同胞送去食物和帐篷，并保证当地的平安。中国媒体5月14日报道，预计灾区共有25,000人被埋在建筑废墟之下，其中18,000人位于总人口5,000,000的绵阳。在都江堰（总人口600,000），一排排居民楼房毁于一旦，死者的尸体堆满了人行道。军事交通工具，从重型卡车，吉普车，救护车到移动厨房满街都是。到处都是中国解放军战士和预备役战士，他们临时使用撬杆甚至徒手挖掘，想方设法救出生还者，同时还要安抚灾民亲属的情绪。

在受灾严重的都江堰医院，救援人员努力撬开厚重的混凝土石板，解救压在废墟中的受伤者。一位女士在医院门口焦急地等待，地震时，她的7位亲属都在医院看望他们的父亲，这位女士说，地震当天，她接到过她的父亲从废墟中打来的电话。之后，第二天，她又再次接到了父亲的电话，他在电话中说，“我觉得我支撑不了多久了。”

夜色降临，巡逻车在街头来回行驶，用大喇叭不断重复着：“请保持镇静。国务院，中央政府，四川省政府，成都市政府以及都江堰政府正在尽一切努力帮助大家。地震灾难并不是不可以避免的。”