RESCUER IN QUAKE-STRICKEN ECUADOR
Yang Liang had just returned to the Ecuadorian capital of Quito from a disaster reconstruction site when he was interviewed by Xinhua.
Without any rest, he jumped into a car for his next destination in Portoviejo, capital city of the western Ecuadorian province of Manabi, where a deadly earthquake caused huge damage earlier this year.
On April 16, a 7.8-magnitude quake struck the South American country's coastal region, leaving over 600 people dead and more than 4,000 others injured.
The construction firm China CAMC Engineering Co., Ltd. immediately established a temporary rescue team.
"I should pass on my confidence to every one in the team," said Yang, director of CAMC's Ecuador branch and leader of the rescue team, who decisively canceled his planned trip to return to China after the quake.
In coordination with Ecuadorian rescuers, Yang and his team dispatched two batches of rescue equipment into the hardest-hit city of Portoviejo and also helped assess the risk of the damaged buildings causing secondary damage.
After realizing the blood supply was inadequate in the disaster area, Yang connected with the Ecuadorian Red Cross. Under his lead, 197 employees of the company, including Yang himself, voluntarily donated their blood.
Another young Chinese volunteer, Zhou Wei, a worker in the southern Ecuadorian province of Cuenca, provided disaster information for Chinese rescue teams after the quake.
Zhou and other volunteers translated information from Spanish into Chinese. From the outbreak of the quake to April 28, their voluntary team published 14 disaster information briefings.
"The key information included details on damaged buildings, transportation and medical conditions," said Zhou.
Yang, Zhou and numerous other Chinese volunteers are now devoted to the post-disaster reconstruction of the country.
During a chat with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who paid a state visit to Ecuador in November, "thanks" was a word repeated several times by Pablo Cordova, a 52-year-old earthquake survivor.
"I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to Mr. President for your country's aid to Ecuador," Cordova told Xi at the headquarters of ECU-911, a China-developed national emergency response system that helped him and many other Ecuadorians survive the quake.
DEFENDER OF WORLD PEACE
In July, a rocket shell suddenly fell onto a Chinese peacekeeping armored vehicle during a mission to guard a refugee camp in Juba, capital of South Sudan.
Several bullets soon followed. The refugee camp became the most vulnerable place during the heavy fighting between government and anti-government forces.
Lu Chengjun, a military instructor at the Chinese peacekeeping infantry battalion under the UN Mission in South Sudan, lost two soldiers during the attack; five others were injured.
The situation was so tense that he decided to write a letter to his family after returning to the UN camp safely to warn of his own possible death.
During the most intense four days of the fighting, none of the Chinese peacekeepers held back, even when faced with a shortage of food and water.
"The whole battalion embraced a strong belief in sacrifice for our country and the sacred peace mission we take," said Lu. "The belief surpasses one's life, encouraging us to stick to our duty even at the cost of our lives."
Like Lu, there are currently over 2,600 Chinese peacekeeping personnel involved in 10 UN peacekeeping operations worldwide.
At a reception held by China's permanent mission to the United Nations in July, Herve Ladsous, UN under-secretary-general for peacekeeping operations, praised the professionalism of the Chinese blue helmets and their dedication to UN peacekeeping operations.
China, already the top contributor of peacekeeping forces among the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, is preparing to make even bigger contributions to UN peacekeeping missions around the world.
"China joins other countries in safeguarding international peace, opposes all forms of terrorism, and supports international and regional cooperation in fighting terrorism, in order to create an environment of peace and harmony that promotes development and thereby consolidates peace," the Chinese government said in a White Paper issued on Dec. 1.
