Whenever the top leadership in Beijing uttered such slogans, they became the rallying cry of the bureaucracy. The party s massive propaganda machine went into overdrive and blanketed the country with a publicity blitz that would make the most extravagant Madison Avenue advertising campaign look like child s play.

In Europe, Fukushima prompted a media blitz of gloom and doom over nuclear energy. The German magazine Der Spiegel heralded the 9 11 of the nuclear industry and the end of the nuclear era, while Spain s leading newspaper El Pais preached that supporting this energy was irrational, and that China has put a brake on its nuclear ambitions.