Chinese Government Declassifies Information on Fatalities From Natural Disasters

September 30, 2005

The National Administration for the Protection of State Secrets (NAPSS) announced that information about the number of fatalities caused by natural disasters will no longer be a state secret, according to a September 12 Xinhua article. A NAPSS spokesperson told a joint NAPSS and Ministry of Civil Affairs news conference that releasing this information would benefit disaster prevention and relief work, according to the report. Therefore, the relevant provisions of the "Rules on State Secrets and the Scope of Their Classification in Civil Affairs Work" were annulled, the spokesperson said.

The National Administration for the Protection of State Secrets (NAPSS) announced that information about the number of fatalities caused by natural disasters will no longer be a state secret, according to a September 12 Xinhua article. A NAPSS spokesperson told a joint NAPSS and Ministry of Civil Affairs news conference that releasing this information would benefit disaster prevention and relief work, according to the report. Therefore, the relevant provisions of the "Rules on State Secrets and the Scope of Their Classification in Civil Affairs Work" were annulled, the spokesperson said.

A commentary posted on Xinhua's English language Web site said the spokesperson attributed the previous secrecy to "decisions made based on historical background," but declined to elaborate. It also stated:

Death from natural calamities used to be taboo among government officials. Analysts think that under a planned economy, from [the] early 1950s to late 1970s, the Communist Party of China feared that exposing death figures could tarnish its image, draw blame from the public, or trigger social turmoil. On July 28, 1976, the country witnessed the devastating Tangshan earthquake in north China's Hebei province. However, the report of a 240,000 death toll was only released three years later. But the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) , in 2003 has driven the government to become more transparent.

While this development is an encouraging sign, all news media in China remain subject to government prior restraints on who may publish and who may engage in journalism, as well as an extensive screening system for politically sensitive news.