The government has shown courage by releasing disaster-related statistics. It has given us the power to rebuild our homes in the quake zone, says an article in People's Daily. Excerpts:

For the first time ever earlier this month, the Sichuan provincial government released detailed information about the quake death toll in its territory - 68,712 people killed, 17,921 people missing, and more than 5,300 students killed or missing.

The transparency is the first of its kind since the founding of New China in 1949, prior to which, information regarding a severe disaster, especially the death toll, was kept under tight wraps.