A trillion dollar economy ,China, is as helpless as one of the poorest nation of world, Myanamar,in the hand of nature.Man is still slave of nature. The people who have created the trillion dollar forex reserves for its country has no safety in its own country.It is shame to humanity.

Ravi Kant, Navi Mumbai, INDIA

We have all seen on TV the images of surviving tall buildings standing next to flattened schools. This is all part of China's massive inequality - schools, like education in general, are massively underfunded and their construction is often done by the very cheapest builders.

John scott, Leeds, UK

i was in tears when i know more than 18k ppl lost their lives.many of them are just children and students.maybe some of them used to have the same dream as mine but it simply ended with the heavy earthquake.we are all livin on the same globe,pls give them a hand,make a donation even 1$. it counts...

Simon, Munich, Germany

I have lived in China for a number of years from US. In the end, the harsh powerful reality of this event is teaching many lessons to the ruling class. They are seeing that there is more power in telling the truth than controlling it, that they can in fact trust the wisdom of chinese people.

bill, chengdu,

I heard that most of the school building are built to withstand a 7.0 earthquake. This earthquake is a 7.9, I think they did not expect such a large earthquake to strike and the mountainous terrain of Sichuan made matters worse. I hope now they will now make all buildings to resist 8.0 earthquakes

Mimi, NY,

Moved to tears upon seeing images of the victims of this tragedy, and impressed by the Chinese rescue efforts, nonetheless, I cannot help thinking how China will hopefully benefit one day from the standards of accountability and open processes that are at least aimed for with democracy.

Helen, Brisbane, Australia

Yes, the earthquake was so severe. But we can see many buildings still standing there after the quakes. Why did the schools collapse? I think the reason's too obvious.

China, Shanghai,

It should be the time to reveal the true scale of destruction and help fellow human being - 'in spite of' corruptions / political control.
Criticism is helpful to change things but it breeds complacency. I hope this doesn't stop material aid and donations flowing.

Helen, London,

Can anyone promise that there is no corruption in your country? We are so tearful to hear that there were a lot of schools collapsed in the earthquake, but there are also a lot of government bulidings. It was the school time, so a lot of students were buried, and the media paid more attention to it.

Sherry, Shanghai, China

guys, more than 2,000 years ago, there was a king in china,who was retarded. He once asked his premier ' why don't people there eat meat?" when he was reported that some areas in the kingdom were having famine and people had to eat grass roots.
For China, to build more schools is the urgency.

Steven, Tianjin, China

The nomadic peoples of Tibet have got the right idea. You do not die from a tent collapsing on you during an earthquake. Their life, judging by the photographs, looks to be a very happy one. They are at one with their land not fighting against nature communist style. Long may it continue.

Colin, Cambridge, Wales

Nobody blamed the Chinese government itself, but when that many schools collapse somebody somewhere wasn't doing their job properly. It's the governments job to figure out who and make sure it doesn't happen again. If corrupt government officials are to blame they should be charged as criminals.

Bruce , Denver, US

we also want to do as better as the other country ,China is the developing country and has many things to improve , and the erthquake was happened in in the countryside where the facilities not well . China improve itself step by step , China have good future I love Chian

jie, shanghai, CHINA

There are not many buildings in the world (even in UK) that are designed for 7.9 earthquakes. China is still a developing country and she will learn from the tragedy. So don’t just cynically dig at the dark side.

Luo, London,

Shut down your guys who dont know chinese,if it happen in you country what your gov. will do ?maybe you will join into robbing

nam, nanchang, china

Let us remind ourselves that construction techniques in the United States also leave a lot to be desired for. I am astonished that houses which are in tornado belts are made from wood and become flattened each time there is a storm. And this is in one of the most advanced countries in the world.

Bob Hall, New York City, United States of America

the earthquake is so serious,the mountains were destroyed.
what kind of house can't be destroyed. stop accuse chinese and the government .

janny, shanghai , china

BBC live interview, Friday

The angry chinese woman accusing the death of so many children on shoddy school building work was immediately hushed up by her neighbours. Are people in China so scared to criticise or has CP training in self censorship made any critical comment socially unacceptable?

Boris, Belgravia, London

It is no use Chinese Premier shouting ' those responsbile shall be punished.' That is called shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. As you have a government that purports to control everything then responsibility should fall on that government not passing the buck to local officicials

Boris, Belgravia, London

The issue with the schools is most likely a combination of corruption and with the ever higher costs of building in China. With so many buildings going up costs have to be cut somewhere and this looks like where that happened.
@ Gav C. The quake was 7.9 not 10+ since there has never been a 10+

Vivas, London,

Sadly the destruction of so many poorly constructed school buildings and the subsequent death of so many children is just the most shocking example of how corruption is pervasive throughout all levels of the Chinese government. That's communism for you, in other words, unaccountable government.

David Lea-Smith, Edinburgh, U.K.

This same thing could happen in California at any time, but the US authorities have systems of earthquake monitoring and warnings in place. Perhaps this has not been properly thought about in China. It is well known that south central China is unstable yet still the authorities allow shoddy building

Boris, Belgravia, London

The priority is the people-and they are being helped now. But the construction of these schools cannot be glossed over. The amazing thing is that sometimes ONLY the school in a town/village collapsed when other buildings stood largely entact-this must point to corruption/ saving$$ at expense ofsafey

Willie, Belfast, UK

This is a geologically unstable region and activity should have been monitored. Second, why were the buildings not built in accordance with the level of risk? With the the one party system, the Chinese people will continue to suffer tragedy after tradegy. No accountability and no checks and balances

Ben, London, UK

Jane, here are some facts you need to know

1.The earthquake is 10-11 magnitude, which isn't 7.9.

2. The Beichuan Police Statoin now has 47 policemen left. Before the eatchquake, there were 144 personels.

3. The City Counciler of Beichuan was rescued 75 hours after being buried.

Gav C, SH, CHN

The most important priority is to rescue people first, only afterwards examine "why".Corruption may not be the issue: school buildings are different in design to almost every other kind of building and hold a higher density of people & lack of education for older & rural builders means poor practise

Rob, Swansea, UK

How many times do you have to be beaten to understand that the same hand that shows you the caring hides another one merciless. China will always have our sincere support and don't mistake the criticism we have for your dictators as ostility towards the people. Wake up brothers.

Stefan, London,

this is such a sad event. i like many foreigners who live here want to give money but we know our money will be stolen by the government people. rescue must come first but how can any chinese people support these people who have cheated on costs to pocket the money for themselves caused this mess.

william gibbons, chengdu, china

i think the important thing is to rescure the people who are suffering in this disaster. it is not the high time to blame. things happened,we should face it immediately and try our best to minimize the losing.hope everything turn to better!

peggy, jiangji, china

Dear bros & sisters. D disaster is sad. No human built things can withstand d anger of mother nature. China is only a developing country and development has not reached every corner of d country yet. Be patient. It is wise not to blame but to learn and improve. Be united and help d victims rebuid.

Lim, Johor Bahru, Malaysia

Maybe the school 's collapse is due to shoddy construction. But the earthquake is so powerful that it can bing down anything. Now the most important thing we should is to rescue the people who suffer from this disaster, we chinese now are doing our best to support our government .

panpan, zhejiang, China

I admit that most of our schools are built with poor material.The government should pay more attention to it.

share, ningbo, China

Tan, yes government workers also died, but in a disaster situation, the first people to save must always be the young and the weak.
So of course schools are where the first activities will be focussed.
The money spent on government buildings in comparison to schools is clear for all to see here!

Andy, Shanghai, China

It may be the case that some schools are not contructed to be as strong as we like. But the earthquake is so powerful that it brought down an entire mountain in Sichuan. Sometimes buildings can be built with the best standards but they are still no match for Mother Nature.

Lee, NY,

I am a Chinese .youl do not know the truth clearly.I just want to say,we Chinese are doing our best to help our people. we never give up. we also need you help if you are willing to.

Li Jia, Sichuan , China

I''ve been told that many of the old buildings were built with poor quality cement. As the walls collapsed, the cement crumbled like sand taking away in any possible air pockets.

Jan, Beijing (expat),

Not only schools,but also official buildings.That's because ppl rescued students firstly. And the quake happened in school time,most of the students in the buildings. May some school budings do not so good.but plz see that also lots of government workers died for the collaped buiding.

Tan, Chongqing,