British magazine praises Chinese gov't, volunteers for joint quake relief efforts
26/5/2008 16:53
British weekly magazine The Economist has praised the combination of the
Chinese government and volunteer efforts in coping with the country's worst
earthquake in three decades.
The article titled "China helps itself" in its
latest edition on Saturday said that the government's relief effort is
impressive and what ordinary people are doing is even more inspiring.
It said
that the government has mobilized its own forces on a huge scale in response to
the disaster on May 12 in the southwest China's Sichuan province.
More than
100,000 troops and police have been deployed to help survivors and to rescue
people trapped by rubble and landslides.
Meanwhile, according to the report,
the scale of non-governmental involvement has been striking.
A group of
private catering companies from outside Sichuan province have been providing hot
steamed buns, meat and vegetables to survivors in Jiangyou, a small city 115 km
east of the epicenter.
Thousands of volunteers headed to the disaster zone.
Their cars, some bedecked with flags and slogans, ply the expressway from
Chengdu and Jiangyou to ferry the injured to hospitals in the city.
Inside a
stadium, stalls set up by volunteer groups offer the refugees services ranging
from psychological counseling to the charging of mobile-telephone
batteries.
In Beijing, thousands of people gathered in Tiananmen Square to
observe three minutes of silence in response to an official call. They also
spontaneously chanted slogans and punched their fists in the air, shouting "Come
on China!".
The combination of government and volunteer efforts has yielded
good results, the report said.
In refugee camps on the periphery of the
disaster zone, tent areas appear clean and orderly, with adequate supplies of
food and clean water.
There have been no reports of serious outbreaks of
disease and most refugees seem in reasonable spirits, the report
said.
Xinhua
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