By the end of Feb. 3, China had mobilized more than two million
members of the armed forces in its fight against extreme weather,
the news affairs bureau with the Ministry of National Defense said
here on Monday.
There are 519,000 troops from the Chinese People's Liberation
Army (PLA) and the Chinese People's Armed Police (PAP), and 1.613
million paramilitary members.
They had sent 219,000 wadded jackets, 528,000 quilts, 5,300 sets
of winter tyre chains with another 5,000 sets being transported to
the disaster-hit areas.
Also, nine military transporters flew in 5,82.5 tons of relief
materials, and another nine helicopters airdropped food and quilts
in Sichuan Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
According to the Ministry of National Defense, the disaster
relief operation is being jointly carried out by more than 10
departments and bureaus such as the General Office of the State
Council, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of
Communications.
(Xinhua News Agency February 5, 2008)