An official from the China Earthquake Administration (CEA) responded yesterday to rumors that earthquake predictions had been suppressed. Che Shi, the deputy director of CEA's Monitoring and Forecast Department, said that since earthquake prediction involves both scientific and social concerns, the government is very cautious about issuing earthquake predictions. Prior to this earthquake, the CEA did not issue a short-term forecast, nor did it receive any short-term forecast opinions related to this earthquake from any organization, individual, or group. "As for the information released online claiming that someone had proposed a forecast for this earthquake, it does not conform to the actual situation."