The Chinese government flew a 49-member team of
rescue workers, medical staff and seismological experts to Pakistan
yesterday as a first batch of relief to its earthquake-hit
neighbor, according to a China Seismological Bureau (CSB)
official.
The team, headed by CSB Deputy Director Zhao
Heping, took six search dogs, eight tons of search equipment
and nine tons of relief materials.
It represents the first emergency humanitarian aid
China has offered to Pakistan, and Foreign Ministry spokesperson
Kong Quan announced yesterday that the government has committed
US$6.2 million in aid to the effort.
President Hu Jintao,
Premier Wen
Jiabao and Foreign Minister Li
Zhaoxing all sent messages to their Pakistani and Indian
counterparts expressing their sympathy and condolences, according
to Kong.
The Ministry of Commerce also
said on its website yesterday that it has launched an emergency
foreign aid mechanism, and is working with the Foreign Ministry and
the military to organize relief efforts.
"The rescue team's job could be more than rescue,"
said Zhang Guomin, a CSB researcher. "The team is led by a CSB
deputy director and it is very likely to discuss seismological
cooperation with the Pakistani side."
Zhang said China is concerned that the quake took
place not far from the boundary of the western Chinese autonomous
regions of Xinjiang
and Tibet.
The Chinese Embassy in Pakistan said the body of
the one known Chinese victim, Huang Bingkun, 39, was brought
yesterday afternoon to the Pakistani capital of Islamabad by a
Pakistani army helicopter.
It is the fourth time China has sent a rescue team
abroad since 2003. The first was sent following an earthquake in
Algeria in May of that year, the second after the quake in Bam,
Iran in December 2003, and the third after the Indian Ocean tsunami
at the end of last year.
China formed the China International Rescue Team in
April 2001, with 222 seismological, engineering and medical experts
from the CSB and military.
(China Daily October 10, 2005)