Irony.

It took a Burmese junta to make the Chinese government seem like humanitarians.

BEIJING (AP) -- Within 24 hours of China's deadly quake, some 20,000 troops converged on the disaster area to help dig out the dead and injured, and military planes and trucks ferried in another 30,000 reinforcements. ...

Gu Linsheng, a researcher with Tsinghua University's Emergency Management Research Center, said the world's sympathy for China's latest crisis may help offset the negative publicity that has beset Beijing following deadly riots in Tibet earlier this year and scandals over tainted food, drugs and toys last year.

''After China was criticized for handling the Tibet crisis, the government hopes the response to the earthquake will leave the rest of the world a positive impression of the Chinese government -- that it is truly for its people,'' Gu said. ...

Gu said Beijing's initial response to the quake was surprisingly quick.

''What strikes me the most is that the response is really, really fast,'' he said. ''Responding to this disaster is particularly difficult, because it happened in a mountainous area with high population density.''