Xu Xuejiang, the man who blew the whistle on the death toll from the Tangshan earthquake 30 years ago, recently recounted how he broke his silence to reveal that the quake had claimed 240,000 lives, a figure that had kept secret for three years.

　　The Tangshan earthquake, which devastated north China's Hebei Province in 1976, was an event surrounded by speculation, guesswork and rumors because no official information about what had actually happened or casualties sustained was made available.

　　Xu considers his experience is still relevant to today's China, which has just drafted a law targeting local officials guilty of cover-ups and media that give incorrect information about disasters, accidents and other emergencies.

　　In November 1979, Xu, then a reporter with Xinhua News Agency and later deputy chief editor, inadvertently got wind of details about the earthquake at the inaugural meeting of China's Seismological Society held in Dalian, a port city in northeast China's Liaoning Province.

　　It was the first time that official figures from the Tangshan earthquake were made available. "It was a big story that the country and the world had long been waiting for. I felt I had to use every possible means to bring it to the public," Xu said.

　　He quickly wrote a story and submitted it to the meeting's general secretary, then an official with the State Seismological Bureau, for further verification.

　　But some persuasion on his part was necessary: "The earthquake happened more than three years ago. There has been too much hearsay because no official statistics have yet been released. The Hong Kong media even claimed that the death toll was over 700,000. It's better to tell the truth rather than cover things up," Xu said to the general secretary.

　　"This meeting is a good opportunity. If the news comes from a conference on seismology, it looks more natural than an abrupt official announcement and means that no explanation about the three-year postponement is needed," Xu wheedled.

　　Xu had to further convince the official that time was of the essence: "It must be published today, and will lose a lot of impact if delayed."

　　"It's not a man-made disaster, and the deaths have no direct relation with the government," Xu insisted.

　　The general secretary, finally convinced, did not seek instructions from higher-level officials and approved the story for publication by Xinhua.

　　The story shocked the country and generated sharp criticism. Some government departments argued that Xinhua ought not to have "divulged a state secret." Xinhua, however, firmly supported Xu's decision to report the story.

　　Xu said that, on the 30th anniversary of the earthquake, it is worth looking back at this unusual experience.

　　"I hope that both the government and the media will learn a lesson from this and further improve coverage of major natural disasters and other emergencies," he said.

　　Reporting deaths from natural calamities used to be taboo for government officials. Analysts believe that during the planned economy period from the early 1950s to the late 1970s, the government feared that exposing death figures might tarnish its image, draw blame from the public, or trigger social turmoil.

　　But the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003, and in particular the sacking of the mayor of Bejing and Minister of Health for covering up the death toll during the crisis, has prompted the government to become more transparent.

　　Last September, the National Administration for the Protection of State Secrets and the Ministry of Civil Affairs jointly declared that death tolls in natural disasters and related information were no longer state secrets.

　　"Society is progressing," Xu said, adding that the government has now established "openness", "transparency" and "people first" as its new principles of governance.

　　地震概述

　　1976年7月28日03点42分在唐山发生了7.6级地震。当天18点45分又在滦县发生了7. 1级地震，同年11月15日宁河发生了6. 9级地震，主震后的余震更加加重了地震灾害。唐山地震无明显前震，余震持续时间长，衰减过程起伏大，余震活动历经二十余年未平息，至今仍有4级左右地震发生。

　　唐山大地震是20世纪十大自然灾害之一。１９７６年７月２８日凌晨３时４２分，在河北省唐山市发生７．6级强烈地震，震中烈度高达Ⅺ度。同日１８时４５分，又在距唐山４０余km的滦县商家林发生 7.1级地震。震中烈度为Ⅸ度。这次地震发生在工业城市，人口稠密，损失十分严重。唐山市区建筑物多数基本倒平或严重破坏，铁轨发生蛇形扭曲，地表发生大量裂缝，还有喷水冒沙、塌陷，震前伴有发光现象。24.2多万人人死亡，16.4万人受伤。邻近的天津也遭到Ⅷ～Ⅸ度的破坏。有感范围波及重庆等14个省、市、区，破坏范围半径约250千米。震源物理的研究表明，该震的震源错动过程较复杂。