China to Spent £800m on Making Schools in Earthquake Zones Safe

The Chinese government will spend an extra 8bn yuan (£800m) to strengthen schools in earthquake-prone areas after thousands of pupils died in the Sichuan disaster last year, state media reported today.

The news comes a day after activists reported that a man had been detained for attempting to organize a full tally of students who died in their schools.

Up to 90,000 people are thought to have died when a 7.9-magnitude earthquake hit south-western China in May last year. But some parents blame shoddy construction linked to corruption for their children's deaths, pointing out that many school buildings collapsed while surrounding structures withstood the shock.

A statement issued by the State Council, China's cabinet, said schools in earthquake-susceptible areas would be reinforced, adding: "The safety of school buildings directly relates to the safety of teachers and students, and is related to social harmony and stability."

Official newspapers said the project would take three years and focus on schools in the poorer central and western parts of the country.

The chair of the committee investigating the earthquake has acknowledged that poor quality building may have played a part in the deaths of so many children, but the authorities began suppressing discussion of the issue after public outrage mounted. Parents have been harassed and detained for protesting.

Yesterday the Chinese Human Rights Defenders network said that police had detained activist Tan Zuoren on state subversion charges. Calls to his family home went unanswered.

The network said that in February this year he had published a proposal urging internet users and parents who had lost their children to compile a list of the victims. He also called for an investigation into the quality of school buildings which collapsed and the treatment of bereaved parents.

Police have previously detained at least three other activists pressing for information about the dead children.

One was sentenced to a year in a labor camp for posting pictures of collapsed schools on the internet, while another has been in detention for nine months, charged with "illegal possession of state secrets".