Foreign experts, overseas Chinese praise China's disaster relief efforts

Foreign experts and overseas Chinese have highly commended China's disaster relief efforts in the wake of the recent devastating earthquake in the country's southwest.

On August 3, a 6.5-magnitude earthquake hit Ludian County, Yunnan Province. So far 617 people have been confirmed killed and more than 3,000 others injured in the disaster.

The Chinese government has responded swiftly and efficiently to the disaster, promptly launching search and rescue operations and pouring in large quantities of human and material resources.

"What was much impressive to me this time was the way China responded to the quake," said Mahbuba Nasreen, director of Dhaka University's Institute of Disaster Management and Vulnerability Studies.

"They are well planned because they have ample resources. Both technically and technologically China is now a country with vast knowledge and experiences in handling various types of disasters," Nasreen said.

In an interview with Xinhua on Thursday, Mahbubur Rahman, a standing committee member of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and a former Chief of Army Staff of the Bangladesh Army, lauded the performance of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China.

"We're happy to see that People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers immediately moved to affected areas and the area is a very challenging and difficult place. And they are rescuing people in the hazardous mountainous areas," Rahman said.

In the eyes of Shannon Tiezzi, an associate editor at The Diplomat, a Tokyo-based online magazine, the PLA also played a key role in China's disaster relief work.

"As China continues to deal with the aftermath of the Yunnan earthquake, the PLA has been at the forefront of the relief efforts: spearheading rescue missions, clearing out debris, and rebuilding roads," she wrote in an article published Friday.

In the report, Tiezzi also recalled the PLA's role in responding to tragedies such as the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, which "is accompanied by an outpouring of goodwill and pride from China's populace."

The president of the Overseas Chinese Association in Paris, Wang Jiaqing, highlighted that Chinese Premier Li Keqiang immediately reached the quake's epicenter after the earthquake took place, while large numbers of armed forces soldiers participated in missions of search and rescue in the disaster areas.

Duong Chhiv, head of the Chinese Community in Cambodia, expressed the belief that under the leadership of the Chinese government, effective achievements will be scored in the search and rescue as well as disaster relief efforts, and that the compatriots in the disaster areas will tide over the current hard time soon.

China's disaster relief work demonstrates to the entire world the great capacity of the Chinese government in dealing with a catastrophe, and enables the entire world to see a highly efficient, powerful and swift state apparatus, said Zhou Jie, deputy editor-in-chief of Sing Sian Yer Pao, a Chinese-language newspaper in Thailand.

Fang Wubin, chief of the Chinese Yiwu Small Commodities International General Chamber of Commerce in Southern Africa, said that the Chinese people showed close unity in facing the catastrophe, and that "we overseas Chinese feel satisfied with and inspired by the search and rescue efforts on the part of the Chinese government."