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Chinese vent anger online at snow relief efforts
01 Feb 2008 10:29:48 GMT
 Source: Reuters
BEIJING, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Watch Chinese state television or read the main Communist Party newspapers and the whole nation appears to be pulling together to battle heavy snow which has stranded millions ahead of the Lunar New Year.

But a look at Internet message boards, hugely popular with China's Web savvy youth and burgeoning middle class, reveals a different picture -- complaints of official incompetence and laughably optimistic, or just plain bad, television reports.

"Today's CCTV news was exasperating. They did a whole segment on the frozen disaster area in the south, and then cut away to talk hysterically about how heroic their reporters were," complained Feiniao434.

"Sure, reporters are having a hard time, but those in disaster zones are having an even worse time, and the ones really in the front line!"

Another contributor, calling himself "Semiconductor", said he had stopped believing the weather forecast and renamed CCTV "Cheating Civilian TV".

"They always know how to turn something bad into something good," Semiconductor said.

The state broadcaster was "good only for duping people" and had not reported on the full extend of the disaster, added "Who is not a slave today".

Sanllyzhao wrote from Bijie in the poor southern province of Guizhou, hard hit by the storms, to describe the "true situation" down there, which included having no water or power supplies for the last two weeks and being ignored by the authorities.

"Please wake up Guizhou government!" the post plaintively ends.

China has largely avoided unrest throughout the crisis, in part due to hundreds of thousands of soldiers and paramilitary police that have been deployed around the country to help with disaster relief and crowd control.

But the Web posts showed signs of mounting anger and frustration.

A university student wrote about volunteering to help passengers stuck at Guangzhou train station, but being treated with disdain by officials.

"I am extremely enthusiastic, yet what I feel now is neither love nor enthusiasm but resignation, resignation and more resignation! Anger, anger and yet more anger!" (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Alex Richardson)


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