China: After the Killer Quake

After a killer quake, Beijing scrambles to show the world it can cope with a massive humanitarian crisis. How the disaster--and the government's response to it--could change China forever

Ian Teh for TIME

As soldiers carry a survivor of a collapsed school, at far left, another laments her missing child.

Zhang Xuede stands near what was once the city of Dujiangyan's Xinjian elementary school, surrounded by mud, debris, twisted metal and slabs of concrete. The 70-year-old has kept vigil for the better part of a day after the school was flattened by the May 12 earthquake. He's looking for his grandson but not really expecting to find him. "After the quake hit, I ran to the school and started removing rubble," Zhang says. "I uncovered several children. Some were dead, some still alive. But I couldn't find my grandson." Unlike many others waiting in the steady drizzle, Zhang seems to have...

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