ABSTRACT

The fundamentals of the management of large natural disasters have retained many of the characteristics it had during the Maoist era. It explains the Maoist experience about disaster management today. The two recent major disasters/crises: The Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic in 2003 and the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008. SARS- unknown type of coronavirus had a high fatality rate and was highly infectious through air. The virus was transmitted to humans through zoonosis. Sichuana,underdeveloped county with a large ethnic minority population. This was the biggest earthquake in China. The reliance on an ad hoc headquarters to oversee and coordinate bureaucracy to carry out disaster management work was the standard operating procedure for Maoist campaign management. The earthquake killed about 200 people. In this book the Wenchuan earthquake generated criticism and many proposals for the improvement of Chinese disaster governance. Some preparations against different hazards exists, but they were always inadequate.