[Note: This podcast was first recorded on May 13.—The Editors]
On April 25, an 8.1 magnitude earthquake shook the Katmandu Valley in Nepal, causing over 8,600 deaths, countless more injuries, and triggering mountain avalanches which sent snow careening down the slopes of Mount Everest and burying the human settlements below. In the days that followed, Nepal saw a disjointed international rescue force arrive in the country as global geopolitical tensions spilled into the politics of local disaster relief.
This week on Sinica, we take a look back at the Nepalese earthquake through the perspective of two foreign correspondents who traveled to Nepal and reported on the disaster first hand: Julie Makinen, reporter for The Los Angeles Times’ Beijing bureau; and Tomasz Sajewicz, head of the Beijing bureau for Polish Public Radio. Our two guests are joined for this discussion by Kaiser Kuo, Jeremy Goldkorn, and David Moser.
Recommendations
- “A Tipping Point in U.S.-China Relations is Upon Us,” David M. Lampton, U.S.-China Perception Monitor, May 11, 2015
- China’s Futures: PRC Elites Debate Economics, Politics, and Foreign Policy, Daniel C. Lynch (Stanford University Press, 2015)
- “Katmandu: Before the Quake,” Jonah M. Kessel, The New York Times, April 27, 2015
- Like Eating a Stone: Surviving the Past in Bosnia, Wojciech Tochman and Antonia Lloyd-Jones (Portobello Books Ltd., 2008)
- See You Again, Kathmandu
- “The Sleeper Issue of 2016 is China,” Aaron L. Friedberg, Politico, May 11, 2015