SOUTHWEST CHINA -- GUIZHOU SLOWLY RECOVERING FROM STORM

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 CHENGDU 000036 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR EAP/CM E.O. 12958: DECL: 2/26/2033 TAGS: PGOV ECON SOCI CH SUBJECT: SOUTHWEST CHINA -- GUIZHOU SLOWLY RECOVERING FROM STORM DAMAGE REF: A) BEIJING 551 B) 06 CHENGDU 1198 CHENGDU 00000036 001.4 OF 003 CLASSIFIED BY: James A. Boughner, Consul General, Chengdu, Department of State. REASON: 1.4 (b),(d) ¶1. (C) Summary: In the aftermath of what provincial authorities claim was the worst winter storm since 1904, China's poorest province is struggling to deal with the provision of basic necessities to the countryside. Damage to the province's electrical power distribution system was particularly severe, and accidents due to icy road conditions appear to have been widespread and serious. Large-scale outmigration of many of the province's workers no doubt exacerbated the difficulties of dealing with the storm. Local officials take pleasure in comparing their response to that of Hunan Province. End Summary. CHINA'S POOREST PROVINCE HIT BY A MASSIVE SNOWSTORM -------------- -------------- ¶2. (SBU) Consul General and Congenoff visited Guizhou's capital of Guiyang on February 19 to elicit from local leaders their assessment of damage from the recent winter storm. The next day, Congenoff drove in a Consulate vehicle from Guiyang to Chongqing, making a long detour through northwestern Guizhou's rural areas along the way. Guizhou is ranked as the poorest province in China with a per capita income of just USD 736. It also has one of the country's most rocky and mountainous terrains that (in addition to making agriculture difficult) can cause communications and transportation problems within the province even during ideal weather conditions. Approximately 30 million people of Guizhou's official population of 39 million live in mountain villages and approximately five million people have left the province to work in factories on the coast. ¶3. (SBU) Between January 12 and February 1 (roughly),Guizhou was hit by a series of ice and snow storms. Chinese news reports indicated 83 counties and cities in Guizhou, representing more than 90 percent of the province's total administrative units, were affected by the storms. Ice on power lines caused widespread electrical outages, and according to one internet news site the province's Communist Party Committee was forced to meet by candle light on January 29. That same site also claimed almost half of Guizhou's cell phone users were out of service in late January due to damage to communications infrastructure. ¶4. (C) Blogs and internet chatrooms painted an even more dramatic picture: one source claiming to be located in the northwest Guizhou city of Renhuai (population approximately 60,000) called the town a "dead city," with no water, electricity, or goods being delivered. He claimed that "people have died, but there is no fuel to cremate them." He also noted commodities were in short supply: a jin (1.1 pounds) of coal cost 12 RMB (USD 1.70),a candle cost 5 RMB (USD 0.70),and a head of frozen cabbage cost 5 RMB (USD 0.70). He closed with a comment that conditions in outlying areas were far worse. THE OFFICIAL REPORT -------------- ¶5. (SBU) On February 19, Consul General and Congenoff met with officials from the Guizhou Civil Affairs Bureau to discuss the effects of the storm. Vice Director Tan Zuxiang delivered a briefing in which he claimed the storm was the worst such event since 1904. Tan said 27 people had died from storm-related accidents, while 80,700 had been injured or fallen ill. Problems with drinking water supplies had affected almost eight million people. Agricultural losses were particularly severe, Tan said, with 1.4 million hectares (3.5 million acres) of crops damaged and 54,800 head of livestock killed, causing economic losses of 5.7 million RMB (USD$792,000). Asked about damage to forests, Tan estimated that between 20 and 30 percent of the province's trees had been destroyed, with probable damage to wildlife and endangered species. ¶6. (SBU) Predictably, Tan praised local and central government efforts to address the problem, saying 18,000 utility workers had been deployed to repair electric lines. In addition, he claimed food and coal had been distributed widely in rural areas, although there had been no airdrops to remote areas. He also confirmed news reports that Premier Wen Jiabao and Vice-Premier Zeng Peiyuan had visited Guizhou to supervise relief efforts. ¶7. (C) Later that evening at a banquet, Provincial Party Secretary-General Zhang Qunshan (note: visibly intoxicated) SIPDIS claimed Guizhou's response to the storm had been much better CHENGDU 00000036 002.2 OF 003 than that of other provinces, mentioning Hunan in particular. He alleged Hunan authorities had made the mistake of closing the province's highways, while in Guizhou the roads were kept open, alternating traffic in each direction, which supposedly allowed relief supplies to flow more freely. He also said Hunan's highway closure cut off road communications with Beijing. Guizhou's principal problems were caused by the almost total collapse of its power grid network caused by collapsing power lines that were brought down by heavy ice in the mountains. (Note: Ref A describes an internal report on Hunan's response to the storm. End note.) OFF THE HIGHWAY, WIDESPREAD DAMAGE -------------- ¶8. (C) The next day, Congenoff (accompanied by a driver and the Consulate's LES Political Assistant) set off for Chongqing by car. Just before reaching the city of Zunyi, they detoured from the high-speed highway, taking about 100 km (67 miles) of secondary roads to the small city of Renhuai, mentioned in paragraph 4 above. ¶9. (C) During a brief stop at the small town of Wujiang (located close to the main highway from Guiyang to Chongqing),locals told us they had experienced power outages, but had not suffered from lack of food or other supplies. Asked about deaths from the storm, one restaurant owner told us there had been victims, mostly homeless people and beggars. But, she added, conditions were no doubt far worse in more remote areas. She also mentioned that many of the area's migrants to coastal areas had been unable to return for the spring festival holidays. ¶10. (C) From there, the road climbed rapidly into a mountainous area, apparently inhabited primarily by the Miao minority. There, snow remained on the ground. Roughly one-quarter of the area's trees appeared to be denuded of branches, and downed utility poles dotted the landscape. Crops such as Chinese cabbage (baicai) appeared to be dead or badly damaged, and in some places we saw what appeared to be makeshift greenhouses in the fields. In a few areas there were blue tents with the characters for disaster relief (jiu zai) printed on them, outside houses with apparent damage to roofs. We also saw the aftermaths of two serious accidents: one in which the trailer from a tractor-trailer truck had turned over and broken open; the other in which a large truck had slid off the road and plowed head-on into a house, nearly destroying it in the process. ¶11. (C) The area also boasted a heavy security presence. Within the space of about ten miles, we passed at least 15 police (gong an) vehicles, including two checkpoints. Another checkpoint was manned by helmeted soldiers of the People's Armed Police. An attempt to chat with a local Miao shopkeeper was unsuccessful -- asked about her experiences during the recent storm, she simply denied any storm had taken place. ¶12. (C) Conditions improved dramatically as we left the highlands and approached the city of Renhuai. Fields were still green, and forests appeared largely intact. However, conversations with local residents confirmed they had felt the effects of the storm. A restaurant manager near the center of town said the town had been without electricity for 10 days, although drinking water had not stopped. On the outskirts of town, a shopkeeper confirmed the 10-day power outage, and added that drinking water had been cut off as well. A station attendant told us her gas station suffered a 15-day interruption in fuel deliveries. And a shoeshine lady, who told us she had migrated into town from a rural area, said conditions were much better inside the city than in her native village. Most contacts also complained that the storm had caused prices of goods such as meat, vegetables, and candles to skyrocket. (Note: We watched one transaction along the roadside, in which a couple purchased two heads of cabbage (baicai) for 4.5 RMB (USD 0.62); if the commentator mentioned above is to be believed, this would mean prices had fallen by about half from the height of the storm. For comparison, Consulate LES staff report that a head of baicai would typically cost 1 RMB (USD 0.14) in Chengdu. End note.) Contacts said that most fatalities in the area were the result of road accidents from the icy roads. COMMENT: -------------- ¶13. (C) A storm of historic proportions hit an area of China already mired in poverty and underdevelopment. As one official readily admitted to us, the fact that five million of Guizhou's most able-bodied men and women had left the province for jobs in other areas meant that many villages were inhabited mainly by the elderly, the sick, and the very young (also reported ref B), adding to the difficulty of recovery from the disaster. Local CHENGDU 00000036 003.2 OF 003 officials are not surprisingly boasting of their own successes (especially relative to the perceived failure of other provinces),but rural Guizhou will likely be very long in recovering its forests, fields, and villages from the effects of the storm. HILL