China aid to quake-hit Japan continues to rise

[Brotherhood]

China aid to quake-hit Japan continues to rise - People's Daily Online March 17, 2011

China on Wednesday boosted aid to Japan by announcing the offer of 20,000 tonnes of fuel and additional government donation while the support from the public continued to mount.

The fuel -- 10,000 tonnes of gasoline and 10,000 tonnes of diesel -- will be transported to Japan by China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), parent of PetroChina, and China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec), the central government said in a terse report.

Details of the offer are not disclosed. Beijing said it would further provide assistance pending on the request of the Japanese government.

Also Wednesday, an eastern Chinese city followed the lead of other local Chinese governments by donating money to earthquake-hit areas in Japan.

The municipal government of Wenzhou, in east China's Zhejiang Province, will donate 2 million yuan (about 307,692 U.S. dollars) to Ishinomaki, its Japanese sister city in hard-hit Miyagi Prefecture, Wenzhou Mayor Zhao Yide said in a letter of condolence.

Zhao said the government of Wenzhou and its people are sad about loss in Ishinomaki and are concerned about rescue and recovery efforts.

Wenzhou is latest Chinese local government to pledge donations to quake-hit areas in Japan.

Previously, the provincial government of Jilin said it will donate 100,000 U.S. dollars to the prefectural government of Miyagi while the municipal government of Changchun, capital of Jilin, pledged 500,000 yuan to the municipal government of Sendai.

China's Red Cross Society on Tuesday said it had donated 6 million yuan in emergency aid to Japan following last Friday's 9.0-magnitude earthquake and ensuing tsunami that have left thousands dead or missing in northeastern Japan.

China sent a 15-member international rescue team to Japan on Sunday, while the Ministry of Commerce said it will provide 30 million yuan worth of emergency humanitarian assistance.

The first relief package -- composed of 2,000 blankets, 900 cotton tents and 200 emergency lights -- has been delivered.

Chinese President Hu Jintao on Monday offered condolences to Japanese Emperor Akihito, saying the Chinese government and people "stand ready to offer necessary help."

Chinese billionaire and philanthropist Chen Guangbiao is currently in Japan to participate in the rescue operation. He said he would donate cash and emergency medicine.

In China, fund-raisers were held in universities and public plazas over the past few days. Banners with words of support were seen in many places including a sports stadium in Tianjin where a Japanese football team was competing in an Asian Football Confederation Champions League match.

Chinese have mixed feelings about Japan due to the atrocities committed by the Japanese aggressors upon Chinese people during the World War II. But the outpour of support from China's government and public triumphed after the earthquake.

According to a survey conducted by Ji'nan University, based in southern Guangdong Province, 90 percent of the 505 interviewees said they support Chinese government's decision to send a rescue team to Japan. Nearly 70 percent said the move would help the two countries develop better ties.

More than 80 percent of the interviewees also said they are willing to provide various forms of humanitarian assistance to the Japanese.

"When China suffered earthquakes, Japan gave a helping hand. Now, it is time for us to help them," said a Chinese surnamed Liu who participated in the survey.

"The spirit of helping and caring for each other in hard times would undoubtedly draw feelings of closeness between Chinese and Japanese," said Columnist Li Kaisheng.

Morishita, a Japanese national who works for an advertising company in Shanghai, said he received many phone calls from his Chinese colleagues and friends after the earthquake.

Morishita said though his hometown is far from the quake zone, he was moved by the care and concern shown by the Chinese around him.

Hashimoto Tomohiko, who works for Isetan shopping mall in northeast Chinese city of Shenyang, said he was glued to China's news channel these days to learn the latest rescue developments.

Japan's earthquake dominated the front-pages of China's major newspapers and magazines while state television channels and radio stations kept airing the news on the rescue and recovery around the clock.

China's Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like microblogging service, is also flooded by news on Japan's earthquake and the rally of support from Chinese Internet users.

"I feel really sad for the Japanese people," said netizen Weixiaoshao. "I hope they could be adamant and optimistic, as depicted in Japanese cartoons."

In universities in Shanghai and Shenyang, the school authorities consoled students from Japan's quake-hit areas and promised assistance.

Staff of Shanghai-based Fudan University were ordered to provide psychological counselling to Japanese students in need.

Inoue Nozomi, who studies education management at Shenyang Normal University, said many Chinese students came to her to ask how she was faring and the school's teaching staff have told Japanese students not to hesitate in informing the school of their needs and demands.

Source: Xinhua

 

[Obambam]

Good news, great to see China's unreserved willingness to help its neighbour in the times of need. This is how things should be, hope our Japanese counterparts appreciates our help.

 

[Hafizzz]

Why China's help to Japan carries weight
Why China's help to Japan carries weight - CNN.com

Editor's note: "Jaime's China" is a weekly column about Chinese society and politics. Jaime FlorCruz has lived and worked in China since 1971. He studied Chinese history at Peking University (1977-81) and served as TIME Magazine's Beijing correspondent and bureau chief (1982-2000).

Beijing, China (CNN) -- Disasters usually bring out the best and the worst in people.

At Beijing Language and Culture University this week, it's the best.

Japanese and Chinese students gathered on campus during lunch break to raise cash donations for Japan's quake and tsunami survivors.

"We know the situation in Japan is terrible right now, so we hope that our activities can help the Japanese victims," said Chinese organizer Jing Yao, a junior aspiring to be Mandarin language teacher. "We want them to know that there are many people who care about them here in China."

Countless people across the globe are opening their hearts and wallets to help the Japanese, but the Chinese offer of help carries an extra weight.

China was one of the first to send a rescue team, a 15-member crew many of whom are now scouring disaster areas in Sendai searching for survivors.

Read more special coverage on China

China has also flown millions of dollars in relief to Japan. "China is also a country prone to earthquake disasters, and we fully empathize with how they feel now," said Premier Wen Jiabao. "When China was hit with the massive Wenchuan earthquake, the Japanese government sent a rescue team and also offered rescue supplies." China is ready to give more, as Japan needs it, he added.

China has been hit with two massive earthquakes in the past three years.

In May 2008, an 8.0-magnitude quake devastated Wenchuan in Sichuan province, leaving over 80,000 people dead or missing. In April last year, another major quake, followed by a mudslide, left more than 2,200 people dead in northwestern Qinghai province.

Just last week, a 5.8-magnitude quake shook southwestern Yunnan province. It killed at least 25 people, injured 250 others and destroyed many houses.

"We are still dealing with the aftermath of that quake, but it will not stand in our way to give aid to Japan," said an official in Beijing, who declined to be identified because he is not authorized to talk about the subject. "We genuinely sympathize with the Japanese people no matter what some netizens say," he said, referring to China's active online community that has not always been unanimous in supporting the aid effort.

At his school in Beijing, Japanese exchange student Makoto Hachiya appreciates the Chinese gestures of sympathy.

"Of course we are very moved and thankful for the support from our Chinese classmates," said Hachiya, a sophomore studying Mandarin, whose family lives near the quake's epicenter. "It shows how friendly and good the China-Japan relationship can be."

Still, anti-Japanese sentiment runs deep among some Chinese.

On social networking sites, some bloggers were sarcastically "congratulating" Japan on the earthquake. Others have called the quake "baoying" (karma) for Japan's occupation of China during World War II. Their numbers may be few, but their voices echo deep-seated animosity.

The Chinese suffered miserably under Japan's wartime occupation from 1931 to 1945. Millions of lives were lost.

Nearly 70 years after the war ended, memories of Japan's war atrocities continue to bedevil the relations.

Even movies can reopen raw wounds.

I remember a controversy in the late 1990s when a big-budget movie, "Pride, the Fateful Moment," opened in Tokyo. The film, about wartime general Hideki Tojo, infuriated Japan critics in China because it claimed that Tojo was not so bad after all.

The movie also implied that the Nanjing Massacre, a killing spree by Japan's imperial army, may not have happened at all. China condemned the movie as an attempt to "whitewash Japanese wartime aggression."

Other irritants fester: the revision of Japan's history books, Japanese officials' visits to ancient shrines honoring wartime heroes, trade issues and territorial conflicts.

The two neighbors have a running dispute over a group of islands known as Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan. At stake in the conflicting claims: national pride and potentially lucrative natural gas drilling rights in waters around them.

Six months ago, the simmering territorial dispute erupted when Japanese patrol officers arrested the captain and crew of a Chinese fishing boat near the islands.

Meantime, at least, Japan's current woes are giving China a chance to show its soft side.

"It's a very important opportunity for China to make a statement in favor of the long-term values of cooperation and humane treatment of your neighbors," said David Kelly, professor at the University of Technology Sydney.

Students at Beijing Language and Culture University say their charity campaign is more important than the amount they collected because it transcended politics.

"There are many things in politics and diplomacy that China and Japan don't see eye-to-eye on, but because of this humanitarian situation and people's willingness to help, we're coming together and improving our relationship in a friendly way," said Hachiya of Japan.

Japan China Bhai Bhai

 

[below_freezing]

Useless help that's just feeding a white eyed wolf.

Japanese think we're subhumans. Let's not disappoint and behave like barbarians for once. Wenzhou is only donating so much because we all know Wenzhou is the #1 source of illegal immigrants in the world and they're throwing away our national pride.