BEIJING - Mothers wailing over the bodies of their children. Emergency workers scrambling across flattened buildings. And a grim-faced political leader comforting the stricken and reassuring a worried nation.

While such scenes are a staple of disasters in much of the world, the rescue effort playing nonstop on Chinese television is remarkable for a country that has a history of concealing the scope of natural disasters and then bungling its response.

Since an earthquake flattened a swath of rural Sichuan province on Monday, killing more than 13,000 people, the government in Beijing has mounted an aggressive rescue effort, dispatching tens of thousands of troops and promptly sending Prime Minister Wen Jiabao to the disaster zone, accompanied by reporters.

With a hard hat on his head and a bullhorn in hand, he ducked into the wreckage of a hospital where scores of people were buried and shouted: "Hang on a bit longer. The troops are rescuing you." Throughout the day, the images of Wen directing disaster relief officials and comforting the injured dominated the airwaves.

With images of the calamitous cyclone in Myanmar still fresh -- and the military government's languid, xenophobic response earning it international scorn -- China's Communist Party leaders are keenly aware that their approach to the earthquake will be closely watched at home and abroad. And after two bruising months of criticism from the West over its handling of Tibetan unrest, the government can ill afford another round of criticism as it prepares to host the Olympic Games in August.

In its zigzagging pursuit of a more nimble and effective form of authoritarian rule, China may be having a defining moment. Its harsh crackdown on discontented Tibetans bore the hallmarks of Beijing's hard-line impulses. But its decision Tuesday to scale back the elaborate domestic leg of the Olympic torch relay -- after a flood of Internet protests calling it insensitive -- is a sign that officials are not deaf to public sentiment.

Shi Anbin, a professor of media studies at Tsinghua University in Beijing, said he thought the international uproar after the crackdown in Tibet was having an impact on Communist Party leaders. "My judgment is that the government has drawn some lessons from negative feedback," he said. "I think it reflects a trend of Chinese openness and reform."

So far, that approach appears to be paying off. Commentary on Chinese Web sites and in chat rooms has been full of praise for the government's emergency response. On Tianya, a popular forum where anti-government postings sometimes find a home, users have been quick to shout down those who criticize Wen and the military's delay in reaching some quake victims.

"Those who can only do mouth work please shut up at this key moment," said one posting.

Another writer praised the People's Liberation Army, saying: "Whenever there's a life-or-death crisis, they're the ones on the front line. We certainly can overcome this catastrophe because we have them."

Change not assured

Chinese Web sites remain heavily censored, and a brief flirtation with openness and responsiveness does not mean that China is headed toward Western-style democracy. On the contrary, if China manages to handle a big natural disaster better than the United States handled Hurricane Katrina, the achievement could underscore Beijing's contention that its largely nonideological brand of authoritarianism can deliver good government as well as fast growth.

Dali Yang, the director of the East Asian Institute in Singapore, said the government might have come to the realization that openness and accountability could bolster its legitimacy and counter growing anger over corruption, rising inflation and the disparity between the urban rich and the rural poor.

"I think their response to this disaster shows they can act, and they can care," he said. "They seem to be aware that a disaster like this can pull the country together and bring them support."

The official response since Monday stands in stark contrast not only to neighboring Myanmar's but also to China's abysmal performance during another major earthquake, in 1976, when at least 240,000 people died in the eastern city of Tangshan. In the days that followed the quake, the powerful Gang of Four played down the disaster and rebuffed offers of help from the outside world.

Hua Guofeng, the chosen successor to Mao, was then out of favor but visited Tangshan a few days after the quake. This act of good will enhanced his power and, along with Mao's death, emboldened him to arrest the Gang of Four, effectively ending the chaotic decade of the Cultural Revolution.