Earthquake administration should be disbanded: NPC deputy

A deputy to the ongoing second session of the 12th National People's Congress has suggested that China Earthquake Administration should be disbanded.

"What is the use of the earthquake administration? It cannot make earthquake predictions and disaster relief is the work of civil administration," said Zhu Lieyu, NPC deputy and director of the Guangdong Guoding Law Firm.

Zhu said in his written suggestion of more than 5,000 words that the State earthquake administration had the responsibilities of monitoring and forecasting impending earthquakes, but it repeatedly explained to the public that earthquakes could not be forecast, and it did not forecast the strong earthquakes that hit Sichuan and Qinghai provinces in past years.

"The budget expenditure of the China Earthquake Administration was 2.41 billion yuan ($392.1 million) in 2010, 2.908 billion yuan in 2011, 3.109 billion yuan in 2012 and 4.086 billion yuan in 2013, but I found that only 12.8 percent of the budget expenditure in 2013 was used for earthquake prediction and rescue," Zhu said.

Zhu said many foreign countries including Japan and the United States have no earthquake administrations.

Zhu suggested an institute be established for earthquake research under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and China's earthquake work should be changed from earthquake forecasting to the improvement of seismic capacity by upgrading building's seismic standards and establishing earthquake emergency systems.