Only 1 percent of China’s population lives in the quake-affected area, where many residents are farmers whose share of the country’s economic output is even smaller.

In a telephone interview, Sharon Stone was at first strident and then contrite about her remarks about China.

Christian Dior said it had dropped the actress Sharon Stone from its advertising in China after she suggested that the earthquakes in Sichuan Province were karmic retribution for the country’s treatment of Tibet.