China quake response unmatched, but challenges ahead

By John Ruwitch

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Within 20 minutes of the earthquake in southwestern China, the People's Liberation Army had activated its emergency response and started to mobilize.

Within hours, Premier Wen Jiabao was on a plane to the disaster zone in Sichuan province to direct the relief effort.

Within a day, roads leading to towns and villages toppled by the quake were starting to clog up with cars, trucks and buses carrying water, food, tents and volunteers eager to pitch in.

China's initial response to its worst natural disaster in a generation was fast, large and unprecedented.

It was in stark contrast to the Myanmar junta's slow, opaque efforts after this month's deadly cyclone and the U.S. government's much-criticized reaction to Hurricane Katrina.

"I think it is not an exaggeration to say that this is probably the most swift and effective response to a large-scale natural disaster in peacetime by any government in history," said Wenran Jiang, a political scientist at the University of Alberta.

Francis Markus, of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said the response was "exemplary."

The central leadership's ability to sense the scale of the disaster and launch major rescue work almost at once has won it unprecedented support and sympathy, analysts say.