Sichuan province news stories on Newser

Monk's Body Paraded After Self-Immolation

Mark Russell — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 09:24:01 CST

The body of a monk who killed himself yesterday morning by drinking kerosene, dousing himself, and lighting himself on fire was taken from the police in western China by hundreds of angry Tibetans and paraded through the streets, reports the AP . Police initially refused to hand over the body, but...

China Jails Quake Activist

Rob Quinn — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 04:00:00 CST

A Chinese activist who blamed shoddy construction for the deaths of thousands of schoolchildren in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake has been sentenced to 5 years in jail for subversion. Tan Zuoren was charged for a document he wrote on the 1989 crackdown in Tiananmen Square, but supporters believe he was...

Chinese Pandas to Head Home After Quake Fixup

Mat Probasco — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 06:13:09 CDT

Sixty giant pandas displaced after a massive earthquake rocked China last year will head home to their nature preserve, reports Xinhua . China is pouring $55 million into rebuilding the endangered animals' Sichuan Province base that previously housed 63 pandas. One died in the quake, one went missing, and one died...

Chinese Police Beat, Detain Artist at Earthquake Trial

Jason Farago — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 06:49:00 CDT

Ai Weiwei, China's leading artist and a prominent critic of the country's government, said yesterday he was beaten and detained when he tried to testify at a civil rights advocate's trial. Ai told the New York Times that dozens of police officers barged into his hotel room in Chengdu, the...

China Censors Artist Leading Quake Inquiry

Jason Farago — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 09:45:08 CDT

The Chinese artist who has made investigating the deaths of children in the Sichuan earthquake a personal crusade is facing a government crackdown, reports the CBC. Ai Weiwei's widely read blog has been deleted, and plainclothes police officers are staking out his studio in Beijing. Ai has relaunched his blog...

Quake Survivors Find Love Among the Ruins

Rob Quinn — Wed, 13 May 2009 05:43:00 CDT

A year after the quake that devastated China's Sichuan province, many survivors have new loves if not new homes, the Guardian reports. In Beichuan—where only 4,000 of the town's 22,000 people survived—some 600 widows and widowers have remarried, and the government hopes more will soon follow...

Artist Presses China on Child Quake Victims

Jason Farago — Tue, 12 May 2009 08:42:32 CDT

China today marked one year since the Sichuan earthquake that left nearly 90,000 people dead or missing. But the government has still not published results of an investigation, and parents whose children died in shoddily constructed schools have faced police intimidation. The parents have found an unlikely advocate, Time...

Pandas Haven't Bounced Back From China Quake

Nick McMaster — Fri, 08 May 2009 16:12:01 CDT

China’s efforts to save the giant panda from extinction haven’t recovered from last year’s earthquake in Sichuan province, AFP reports. The temblor swallowed up whole groves of bamboo, causing a food shortage just as breeding centers, whose efforts have caused a recent panda “baby boom,” have more mouths to feed...

A Year After China Quake, a Baby Boom

Mat Probasco — Sun, 03 May 2009 13:42:21 CDT

The devastation is still raw from the earthquake that snuffed out thousands of young lives in rural China a year ago, reports the Los Angeles Times , but many grieving parents have found new hope in the form of another baby. More than 10% of new mothers in one Sichuan Province...