BEIJING, May 13 (Xinhua) -- Chinese leader Hu Jintao
urged governments at all levels to regard earthquake rescue and relief as the
top priority at a high profile meeting late Monday evening.
Hu, state President and General Secretary of the
Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), presided over the
meeting of the Political Bureau Standing Committee of the Central Committee of
the CPC. The meeting called on the army, armed police and paramilitary forces,
as well as medical personnel to go to the quake-hit areas as soon as possible,
and mount all-out efforts to save the injured and reduce the impact caused by
the havoc.
Monday's quake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale
jolted Wenchuan County, Sichuan Province in southwest China at 2:28 p.m.,
resulting in nearly 9,000 deaths reported so far. Tremors were also reported in
over half of China's provinces and municipalities, according to the China
Seismological Bureau.
The meeting demanded sufficient supply of food,
medicine, clothes and tents to the quake-hit areas and that telecommunication,
power and water supplies and transportation access must be restored as soon as
possible.
Local governments should keep a close watch on the
latest development of the earthquake and its aftershocks, and guard against
earthquake-induced disasters causing new casualties.
Those who spread rumors to sabotage disaster relief
work would be dealt with according to China's laws and regulations.
The meeting decided to set up a disaster relief
headquarters with Premier Wen Jiabao as head, and Li Keqiang and Hui Liangyu,
both vice premiers, as deputy heads.
The meeting called on all party members in the
quake-hit areas to devote themselves to protect the interests of the public on
the front line of disaster relief work.
Chinese Pemier Wen Jiabao (2nd R) speaks
to buried people at a ruined hospital in Dujiangyan city of southwest
China's Sichuan Province May 12, 2008. Premier Wen flew into southwest
China's Sichuan Province on Monday.(Xinhua Photo) Photo
Gallery>>>
BEIJING, May 13 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has
pledged to save as many lives as the rescue teams can in southwest China's
Sichuan Province which was hit by a major quake on Monday afternoon.
Wen made the remarks during his inspections at a hospital
and a school in Dujiangyan, a city northwest of the provincial capital Chengdu,
partly damaged by the quake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale. Full story
Member of the Standing Committee of the
Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and
Chinese Pemier Wen Jiabao (C) arranges relief work of the earthquake
during his flight for the disaster area on May 12, 2008. Premier Wen flew
into southwest China's Sichuan Province on Monday afternoon and left
straight for the quake-hit county of Wenchuan, 159 kilometers from the
provincial capital of Chengdu, to oversee rescue work there.(Xinhua
Photo) Photo
Gallery>>>
BEIJING, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has
asked for public calm and efficient organization of disaster relief work after a
major quake hit southwest China's Sichuan Province on Monday.
Wen has arrived at Dujiangyan, a city northwest of the
provincial capital Chengdu, and started to oversee disaster relief work. The
city was less than 100 kilometers from the quake's epicenter at Wenchuan County.
Full story
BEIJING, May 13 (Xinhua) -- Relief troops are approaching
Wenchuan County on foot, the epicenter of a quake that jolted southwest China's
Sichuan Province Monday afternoon.
The authority has not given a specific number of the
rescuing troops approaching the epicenter, but about 100 officers of the armed
police forces advancing to Wenchuan on foot has been accessed via satellite
phone. Full story
