The worst earthquake in China for 30 years is unfolding into a tragedy of enormous proportions. More than 18,000 people have been buried in one city alone. Many roads and bridges in the Sichuan province are inaccessible. The desperate plight of hundreds of thousands of people in the mountainous areas of the region demands immediate relief. Beijing is acting.

The government’s swift response to the Chengdu earthquake has been admirable. Unlike the 1976 Tangshan earthquake, there has been no attempt to conceal the scale of what has happened. Rather, a meeting of the politburo and the arrival in the disaster area within hours of Wen Jiabao, the country’s premier, suggest that a secretive and prickly leadership has learnt from past mistakes.