Global Reaction

Chinese Red Cross expert heads to quake-hit zone

By He Dan and Li Wenfang (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-03-16 08:02

Nakayama Chie (left), a Japanese student at Tsinghua University in Beijing, watches a Chinese student contributing money during a collection on Tuesday for people living in the areas of Japan hit by a devastating earthquake and tsunami on Friday. Jason Lee / Reuters

BEIJING - A senior rescue expert from China's Red Cross Society is expected to arrive in earthquake-hit Japan on Wednesday to offer expertise in evaluation, disaster management and international coordination.

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Ren Hao, deputy director of the external liaison department with the Red Cross Society of China (RCSC), will join his counterparts from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and six other countries' Red Cross organizations, including those of the United States, Canada and Australia.

The Red Cross Society of China announced through its website on Tuesday that it has decided to donate 5 million yuan ($761,000) in emergency aid to Japan's quake zone. The organization had already donated 1 million yuan on March 12.

In addition, the organization has launched free people search services in a bid to help Chinese citizens to reconnect with their family members in Japan's quake-hit areas.

People who have lost contact with their relatives in Japan need to download and fill out a tracing request from the society's website.

More Chinese people from all walks of life have offered helping hands to their Japanese neighbors, who are suffering from the twin tragedy of earthquake and tsunami that have caused at least 3,300 deaths.

Chen Guangbiao, a well-known Chinese entrepreneur and philanthropist, flew to Japan on Saturday with 1 million yuan in cash and emergency medicines.

Chen, who is updating his rescue work on his micro blog at qq.com, said he saved a Japanese woman in her 50s from a collapsed two-story building in Fukushima on Sunday.

Chen said he volunteered to help in the disaster-stricken areas as a way to show his gratitude to Japanese rescuers who reacted promptly during the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008, China Radio International reported.

Chen has left Fukushima and returned to Tokyo on the advice of local authorities, after explosions at reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

The Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou has checked with all 72 Japanese students studying there and found no significant loss incurred at their homes back in Japan, the publicity department of the university said.

Administrative officials from Tianjin University have also checked with 10 Japanese students and confirmed all the students' family members in Japan are safe, according to a China National Radio report. The university also tried to contact its Japanese alumni to remind them of possible aftershocks.