1976

choi

Michael Fathers, A Shock to the System; In 1976, an earthquake devastated a populous Chinese city. China's political landscape shifted as well, with effects that are still visible today. Wall Street Journal, Jan 20, 2012
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB ... 59284223290356.html
(book review on James Palmer, Heaven Cracks, Earth Quake; the Tangshan Earthquake and the death of Mao's China. Basic, 2012)

Quote:

"The Chinese authorities reported that a half-million people had died in the quake. (Today the accepted fatality figure is half of that.) Only 3% of the buildings in tangshan survived, mainly pre-revolutionary offices and houses built by German and British mining companies.

"The old tyrant Mao Zedong, whose policies led to the deaths of millions, has vanished. In his place, says Mr Fathers, is Mao as a kind of George Washington figure--a hero of the anti-Chinese war and the founder of a nation.

Note: The review mentions "the straitened circumstances of life in China in the 1970s."

(a) straited (vt):
"1a : to make strait or narrow
b : to hem in : CONFINE
* * *
3: to subject to distress, privation, or deficiency <in straitened circumstances>"
(b) strait (adj): "archaic  NARROW"

Both definitions are from www.m-w.com.