Parents can't refuse quake hush money

Published Date: 27 July 2008 THE official came for Yu Tingyun in his village one evening a couple of weeks ago. He asked Yu to get into his car. He was clutching the contract and a pen. Yu's daughter had died in a cascade of concrete and bricks, one of about 240 students at a high school who lost their lives in the May 12 earthquake which struck China. Yu became a leader of grieving parents demanding to know whether the school, lik e so many others, crumbled because of poor construction. The contract had been thrust in Yu's face during a long police interrogation the day before. In exchange for his silence and for affirming that the ruling Communist Party "mobilised society to help us" he would get a cash payment and a pension. Yu, a wiry 42-year-old driver, had resisted then. This time he took the pen. "When I saw that most... [read full story]