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YINGXIU, China-U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited the epicenter of China's huge earthquake on Saturday, meeting victims and drawing an unspoken comparison with the sluggish aid efforts after a cyclone in neighboring Myanmar.He arrived by helicopter in the flattened remains of Yingxiu, a small town tucked in a steep river gorge which lost an estimated two-thirds of its inhabitants in the May 12 quake and has almost no safe buildings left standing.He was met by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who raised the official death toll to over 60,000 and said it may climb above 80,000. China had said on Friday that over 55,000 were dead and nearly 25,000 missing, but nearly two weeks after the quake, hopes of finding anyone alive are nearly extinguished.As relief workers in white coats and facemasks unloaded relief supplies and thousands of troops worked to clear rubble and bury the dead, Ban repeatedly paid tribute to the leadership of Wen and response of his government, and pledged full support."The Chinese government, at the early stage of this natural disaster, has invested strenuous effort and demonstrated extraordinary leadership," he told a small group of journalists.Beijing has largely won praise for its relief efforts, sending over 100,000 troops and a string of senior leaders to the worst-hit areas and accepting some foreign help even though the quake zone is home to China's chief nuclear weapons research lab.The contrast with neighboring Myanmar was unspoken but strong. After Ban's visit there earlier this week the government finally agreed to open up to all foreign aid workers, around 3 weeks after Cyclone Nargis slammed into the country's delta.In its aftermath the secretive Myanmar government appeared ill-equipped to help an estimated 2.4 million destitute but it barred most foreign aid workers for weeks and pushed on with a long-planned constitutional referendum.
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