In Departure, China Invites Outside Help

May 16, 2008
In Departure, China Invites Outside Help
By HOWARD W. FRENCH and EDWARD WONG

MIANYANG, China — With the death toll from this week’s earthquake rising rapidly, China has departed from past diplomatic practice, seeking disaster relief experts and heavy equipment needed for rescue operations from neighbors it has long shunned as rivals or renegades.

Officials on Thursday asked a longtime rival, Japan, to send 60 earthquake rescue experts, the first such team China has accepted from a foreign country during the current crisis and one of the few official relief missions China has ever accepted from abroad. This week it also accepted help from at least three private relief teams from Taiwan, the self-governing island with which China has long had tense relations.

On Friday, access was extended to teams from Russia, South Korea and Singapore.

The decision to seek outside help reflects the fact that the search for survivors of Monday’s massive earthquake and the struggle to accommodate hundreds of thousands of displaced people from the mountainous region around the epicenter of the quake are too much for China to handle all alone, even after it mobilized 130,000 army soldiers, security forces and medics for relief work.

But the selective invitations to Japan and Taiwan — some foreign nations that have offered aid have so far been told that their services are not needed — may also show that China sees disaster relief as a tactical tool to improve ties with neighbors and soften its international image ahead of the Olympic Games in Beijing in August.

China is struggling to provide humanitarian aid to the hundreds of thousands left homeless even as it tries to increase search-and-rescue efforts for 40,000 buried or missing people scattered across remote villages in the serpentine valleys of Sichuan Province.

Officials estimated Thursday that the death toll, now nearly 20,000, could rise to 50,000. Doctors say those who are alive but buried are running out of time.

In his first visit since the disaster, President Hu Jintao flew into Sichuan on Friday. He called for relief efforts to be stepped up and said rescue work had entered its “most crucial phase,” Agence France-Presse reported, quoting the official Xinhua News Agency.

Many of the troops involved in rescue efforts appear to have little training in disaster relief and lack proper tools and equipment. On Thursday, in the devastated county seat of Beichuan, thousands of People’s Liberation Army soldiers stood around with little to do. Some languidly picked at the rubble with their hands, unequipped with power tools to drill or saw through debris.

Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, who is being portrayed in the Chinese media as exercising minute-to-minute supervision of the effort, sent 100 more helicopters to ferry supplies and workers into areas inaccessible by road.

The government also issued a detailed request for equipment needed to clear mountain roads. The list included thousands of pieces of earth-moving equipment, mechanized hammers, shovels and cranes, as well as satellite communications technology.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman said Thursday that China so far had received pledges of $100 million in international disaster aid and $10 million in relief materials.

The three Taiwanese groups invited to participate in relief operations are the Red Cross and two Buddhist organizations without government ties. One of the Buddhist groups, Tzu Chi, had been granted permission a while ago to do charity work on the mainland. Charter planes carrying relief supplies from Taiwan have also been allowed to fly directly to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan. Because of their long history of political rivalry and tension, China and Taiwan do not have regular direct flights.

One Chinese relief official called the invitations to a relatively small number of overseas teams “rescue diplomacy.” China has been eager to secure international good will in what has so far been a trying diplomatic year for the country, with crises involving Tibet, human rights and pressure to reduce support for the Sudanese government.

Both Japan and Taiwan have extensive experience with earthquakes. Japan in particular lies along an active fault and suffered a major quake in Kobe in 1995.

But improving relations with Japan and Taiwan is also a high priority. President Hu just completed a visit to Tokyo, the first by a Chinese leader in a decade, which some analysts expect could speed a thaw in sometimes hostile political ties between the Pacific powers.

In Taiwan, Ma Ying-jeou, the Kuomintang leader, was elected president in March. He will replace the independence-leaning government of Chen Shui-bian and has vowed to improve cross-strait ties. China appears eager to show that he can succeed.

“This is of course very meaningful politically,” said a Chinese relief official in Shanghai, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “It means we’re opening up and merging with international society, including the area of rescue efforts. The biggest news is that Japanese are allowed into China. We’ve entered the big family of rescue efforts now.”

Whatever the diplomatic goals, Sichuan needs foreign help. The earthquake, which had a magnitude of 7.9, devastated entire counties, destroying an estimated four million homes, rendering roads impassible and leaving as many as 10 million people dependent on aid.

One of them is Yang Jinquan, an 86-year-old who had to hobble over bodies of her neighbors to descend from the mountains. She ended up in a massive gymnasium and stadium complex in Mianyang, sleeping on a treadmill and sharing toilets with more than 10,000 other people left homeless.

“There are just so many people here,” said her granddaughter, Liu Ying, 24, one of 12 family members sharing a few dozen square feet of floor space. “What can anyone do?”

Hundreds of thousands of people remain homeless, some crowded into camps like the Nine Continents Gymnasium where Ms. Yang is staying, others sleeping in muddy fields in the mountains. Food and water are becoming scarcer, and medical experts warn of outbreaks of influenza, diarrhea and other diseases.

“Now the main job is to restore the cities and control the spread of infectious diseases and ensure people’s health,” said Yang Changjiang, 62, a doctor volunteering at the gymnasium who had spent 40 days in 1976 treating victims of the Tangshan earthquake, in which at least 240,000 people died.

In Gongxing, a farming town in the plains below a mountain range, the earthquake left many of the hand-built houses as piles of rubble surrounded by rice paddies. “People have been coming by and bringing instant noodles, but we only got one cup of noodles per person,” said one woman, Zhou Daihui.

Farther to the west, by a river running past Wandeng village, local teenagers handed out water and snacks as survivors walked down from ruined towns deeper in the mountains. People from elsewhere had made a donation of a few dozen boxes of crackers, cookies and bread, but more was clearly needed.

“We need bread and water,” said one young man handing out food. “Please also tell people that we need medicine. There are too many people up in the mountains that are injured.”

Besides a lack of food, earthquakes also often result in a shortage of medical care, sanitation, clean water and shelter because so much infrastructure, including hospitals, is often destroyed, said Marie-Noëlle Rodrigue, head of emergency operations for Doctors Without Borders. Teams of doctors from that organization are now assessing the medical conditions in Mianzhu, an especially hard-hit area.

Ms. Rodrigue said it was unclear whether China would be able to meet the needs of victims trapped in mountain areas. “But they have been quick and they have been strong, and they have mobilized their army,” she said.

Howard French reported from Beijing, and Edward Wong from Mianyang. Reporting was contributed by Jake Hooker and Jim Yardley from Chengdu, Gongxing and Wandeng, China; Andrew Jacobs from Beijing; and Alan Chin from Beichuan.