It’s difficult to comprehend the magnitude of the tragedies in Myanmar and China this week. Both countries have suffered tremendous losses of life, and we will see more lives lost if help is not swiftly and effectively provided.

The two countries’ authoritarian governments reacted to relief efforts differently. With now more than 100,000 people estimated missing or dead in Myanmar from Cyclone Nargis, the country’s secretive military government has been slow to accept the international aid that survivors now desperately need.

In China, the death toll from Monday’s 7.9-magnitude earthquake in Sichuan province rose past 15,000 on Wednesday, with thousands more trapped or missing. That number will almost certainly increase in the days ahead.

The Chinese Communist Party has not embraced foreign aid workers with open arms, but unlike Myanmar, China has the capacity to send 50,000 soldiers to the devastated region to help with relief efforts. Official reports of the damage in Myanmar came slowly and were confusing, but Chinese media have been reporting on the death toll and the damage with increased openness.

Natural disasters and political events can be eerily linked in China. When media call this week’s quake “China’s deadliest earthquake in three decades,” they are referring to the 1976 Tangshan earthquake that killed more than 240,000 people in the northeast region of the country. That was one of the most turbulent years in modern Chinese history — Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai both died in 1976, and that the was the year the Cultural Revolution ended.

It seems 2008 may be stacking up to be another one of those years for China — the earthquake follows a spate of intense snowstorms in January and an Olympic torch relay mired in controversy as the country prepares for the Games in August.

China received plenty of criticism (deserved or not) regarding the Tibet protests in March, but after this week’s events, we’ll almost certainly see a change in China coverage. Now hardly seems the time to assess the political fallout from the disaster. Even so, you can be sure the world will be watching to see how China responds with less than 3 months to go before the opening ceremonies.

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Related:

Peter Hessler in The New Yorker, After the Earthquake (Hessler’s former students from his books River Town and Oracle Bones report on the disaster that struck close to home.)
Gady A. Epstein in Forbes Magazine, China’s Mandate of Heaven
Daniel Goldbloom in the National Post, Cyclone Nargis, The Sichuan Earthquake and Authoritarian Disaster Relief: Burma vs. China
Danwei’s coverage of China and Myanmar, Danwei.org
American Red Cross, ways to help survivors of the China Earthquake and Myanmar Cyclone

photo: Rescuers search for survivors in a collapsed road in Beichuan County, Sichuan province. AP / Cong Feng, Xinhua