Quake comparisons

As the weight of the damage of Japan's massive earthquake and resulting tsunami Friday afternoon unfolds, comparisons to China's 2008 big quake in Sichuan province are inevitable for China.

On the Internet, China's chattering classes already have begun discussing the superiority of Japan's infrastructure and earthquake preparedness (even as some of the nastier anti-Japanese online commenters rejoice in the news). Rural Sichuan province, where almost 90,000 people were killed and millions left homeless in an 8.0-magnitude quake nearly three years ago, was plagued with problematic construction, in part due to rampant corruption before the earthquake hit. A government investigation into why so many schools collapsed in the earthquake was never released and parents who tried to sue were arrested and hassled by police. Conversely, quake-prone Japan is deadly serious about building codes and disaster preparedness.

Sichuan's earthquake was exponentially smaller than Japan's 8.8-magnitude quake, but it's as yet unclear how widespread the damage and casualties are in Japan.