This is the first thing I thought of when I read reports of all the public buildings destroyed in the Chinese quake. So I'm glad to see Reuters covering it. As much as coping with the damage, how the government deals with these accusations of corruption will say much about the Chinese state. The accusations are not new. I've been reading of them for years, though only in the international press. It's a pity so many people had to die in order to get the government to pay attention to them. Hopefully the investigation will be more than cosmetic, and the people who suffered the consequences will get some real answers.

Good article about the result of poor construction that other disasters have also revealed–the tsunami that killed 200,000 people a couple of December’s ago, as well as the recent cyclone in Burma that resulted in thousands of casualties. The sheer enormity of the number of those killed and injured by collapsing buildings will force the Chinese government to take actions it normally wouldn’t take. While very flimsy buildings seem to be the norm in many parts of the third world, construction in America is better–but not by that much. Earthquake experts are very concerned about what will happen to buildings should a major quake hit Seattle, San Francisco, LA, etc. Why do we always gain insight after the fact?

As the issue concerns the general public and their woes the report indicates the good journalism

This type of story is pretty much a given after any devastating earthquake in poorer parts of the world. (same thing happened during the Gujarat, India earthquake back in 2001) However, the story does have solid quotes from solid sources. Just needs to probe further into the issue of corrupt builders and what the Chinese Gov't. plans to do with them. (although, to be fair, this probably is not feasible given the Chinese Gov't.'s control with the media)

Where was the reporter going with this story? It seems like he tried to lump two topics into one articles and didn't weave them together well. It opened with this demand from parents to the state for answers about "shoddy construction of schools." But then it doesn't actually flesh out that lede until much further down. While I know it might be difficult to obtain sources because of government restrictions, it seemed that were victims families with their accusations and no one to speak for the other side. The last half of the article felt like another article entirely. It's very informative and factual, but felt like a hurried, poorly organized piece.