MIIT materials on disaster relief in quake-hit Sichuan

I. General Information

A devastating earthquake hit the county of Wenchuan on May 12, causing heavy casualties and property losses to China . The communications facilities in the earthquake-stricken areas in Sichuan were completed devastated by the powerful earthquake and countless aftershocks. According to the statistics, as of 14 o'clock, May 19, 616 wired switching office, 16,507 wireless base stations and 10,960 sheath kilometers of optic cable were greatly damaged, causing the loss of communications between the 7 most seriously affected counties with the outside. The communications between the 7 most seriously affected counties including Wenchuan, Lixian, and Beichuan in Sichuan Province were completely lost. The communications in the 5 earthquake-hit counties in Gansu Province including Zhouqu, Diebu, Wenxian, Kangxian and Chengxian were disrupted. The communications between the internal sub-offices in Shaanxi Province were seriously affected. With the sudden outburst of the earthquake, the long-distance traffic to Sichuan in the national backbone network increased sharply and even caused the congestion in the network. The call put-through rate dropped to 10 percent.

The industrial and mining enterprises in Sichuan , Chongqing , and Gansu suffered huge losses in the earthquake. 12,563 industrial enterprises in Sichuan were affected by the earthquake which caused a direct loss of RMB47.71 billion, 1,328 dead and 5,704 injured. The industries in Chongqing suffered an economic loss of RMB123,170,000 including a direct loss of RMB66.79 million. 17 were injured. 33 industrial and mining enterprises in the seven affected counties and districts in Gansu, including Wudu District, Longnan City and Wenxian County, suffered a huge loss, with a direct loss of RMB180 million. These enterprises have stopped production.

Recovering communications facilities and maintaining the communications in the disaster-stricken areas is one of the most concerned issues of the CPC Central Committee, the State Council and the Chinese people. After the disaster, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, in accordance with the overall arrangements and requirements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, set up a disaster relief steering group headed by Minister Li Yizhong. The steering group consists of five specialized sub-groups: communications guarantee sub-group, medical and equipment guarantee sub-group, military industry and civil explosive sub-group, post-disaster reconstruction sub-group, and general coordination sub-group. The ministry launched the emergency response scheme immediately. Minister Li Yizhong, together with the leaders of China 's major telecom operators, stayed at the forefront of the disaster-hit areas to direct the recovery of communications facilities and the disaster relief work. According to the statistics, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has mobilized 26,000 emergency response staffs from communications enterprises, 383 emergency communication vehicles, 973 satellite phones, 7,422 power generators, and more than 2000 sets of other emergency communications and fast-repair equipment in the disaster relief work. The Ministry utilized a total of 496MHz of transponder resource and sent out 450 million pieces of short messages for emergency reminders and emergence response instructions. The Bureau of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense and the State Tobacco Monopoly Bureau also made arrangements for the disaster relief work and launched the emergency response system. They mobilized communications satellite, earth observing satellite, and other aerospace equipment to serve the disaster relief work.

Relief efforts have proved very efficient. As of 14:00 PM May 19th, all the earthquake struck counties had been able to communicate with the outside via either satellite, fixed or mobile methods. While guaranteeing communications in the 7 hardest-hit counties including Wenchuan, Lixian and Maoxian, intensive efforts are also being made to restore public communications and emergency repair teams are edging their way into key and unconnected towns. On May 18th, vice Premier Zhang Dejiang pointed out in his address to operators nationwide that it'd been a great achievement to restore communications in the hardest-hit towns and expected all employees in China 's mobile and fixed sectors to go all out to ensure uninterrupted and secure communications for disaster relief. Besides, a wide range of equipment and tools have been mobilized and transported to disaster areas including 700 power generators, 1000 cutters together with medical devices and medicines such as ventilators, cardiac monitors and bandages as well as 600 dilating forceps, 200 power generators and 200 cutters for the frontline relief soldiers.

II. Communications guarantee

Based on the overall planning of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, operators have sent out their backbone forces to the frontline to repair damaged facilities like optic fibers and mobile stations. Guided by the spirits of cooperation, serving the frontline needs and resource sharing, we are restoring communications further in key and unconnected towns while guaranteeing communications in the 7 hardest-hit counties.

Repairs in fixed and mobile communications facilities. As of 14:00 PM May 18th, trunk optic fibers in Wenchuan, Lixian, Maoxian and Qingchuan counties had been restored while trunk fibers in Pingwu county were disrupted for the second time due to an afterquake at 5:22 PM on May 17th, which was restored again at 23:40 PM on 17th after painstaking emergency repair and a repair commando in Heishui county is making painstaking efforts to repair trunk fibers from Maoxian to Heishui county. By 13:00 PM May 18th, 80 kms of 123 kms of damaged fibers had been restored. Beichuan county has been communicating with the outside through emergency communications vehicles. As of 14:00 PM on 18th, all the 7 hardest-hit counties were able to use mobile communications. In the emergency repairs in towns, mainly satellite communications have been adopted, supplemented by VSAT devices. Restoring efforts are going further into administrative villages in towns.

Repairs in towns. 58 of the 80 sets of IDR base stations mobilized have been delivered to Chengdu , which had been planned to be parachuted into unconnected towns on 17th but failed due to bad weather. Among the 100 sets of VSAT devices assembled in Chengdu , 34 sets had been parachuted into the towns and arrangement is being made to parachute the rest 66 sets in. Coordination with the air force will continue on 18th so as to parachute in as soon as possible. If enough equipment can be transported into the area, IDR will be mainly used for communications in towns supplemented by VSAT devices. If not, VSAT will be mainly used for communications in towns. Next, we will use VSAT and satellite phones to recover communications in administrative villages.

In response to the shortage of communications equipment batteries in the earthquake-affected area, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has asked relevant enterprises to allocate 1,000 backup batteries and 100 power socket boards, which have arrived in Chengdu on the evening of May 17. The 200 satellite phones among the 1,000 phones in total purchased from abroad have also arrived in Chengdu on the evening of May 17. Another 300 will arrive in Beijing on the evening of May 19. We are urging the phone suppliers to dispatch the rest 500 phones as soon as possible. 100 satellite phones donated by ITU are expected to arrive in Beijing in May 20 and will be shipped to the disaster area as soon as possible.

Communications support services. Various resources have been mobilized to support the disaster relief. Media such as CCTV has established contacts with National Seismic Network Center and the disaster areas to have live coverage of the disaster relief work. Dedicated circuits have been assigned to relevant government agencies to command the disaster relief work. At five am on May 17, Ministry of Land and Resources opened a 100M digital dedicated circuit from Beijing to Chengdu for the data transmission on disaster relief. A dedicated circuit from Luoyang in Henan to Deyang and Mianzu in Sichuan has been opened to support the rescue units.

Main work for comforting people in the earthquake affected area

Free IPSTAR Satellite broadband video communications system and 10 family call phones are supplied for victims in Dujiangyan to connect with their relatives outside the disaster area. Telephone navigation platforms such as 114, 116114 and 12580 have opened hotlines for people to connect with or look for their families and relatives. Teams are dispatched to counties and villages seriously affected by the earthquake to provide public with mobile phone battery recharging service. China Mobile and China Unicom provide free communications service for rescuers such as the Liberation Army commanders, the armed police, doctors and nurses and volunteers from the day the earthquake happened to May 30.

III. Disaster relief by the industrial and mining enterprises

Under the leadership of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, disaster relief and reconstruction have been progressed in an orderly manner by the industry administrators and enterprises. Sichuan Provincial Economic Commission in collaboration with China Petro Sichuan branch and Sinopec have deployed mobile gas stations in the most affected areas to secure supply of refined oil. Emergent shipment of coal have been made from other areas in Sichuan and other provinces to help local coal mines to reconstruct and to resume production to secure coal supply for power generation. Sichuan Office of Information Industry and Shanxi Office of Information Industry strengthened work deployment of disaster relief and reconstruction among the electronic information industry and radio management administration to safeguard radio frequency security and strengthen technical guidance to the disaster areas. With the resource advantage and electronic technology equipments, enterprises and administrations in the national defense technology industry actively participated in the disaster relief and played a significant role.

IV. Supply of the Materials and Tools for Earthquake Resistance and Disaster Relief

Since the strike of the earthquake, the Ministry of Industry and Information has coordinated with the related parties to ensure the supply of the equipments and tools needed for the earthquake resistance and disaster relief. By 17:00 May 17th, there have been 130 messages received for the supply of the disaster relief tools and equipments. By now, 700 generators and 1000 cutting machines have been urgently sent for Sichuan Economic Committee; 600 expansion clamps, 200 generators and 200 cutting machines have been urgently sent to the army in the battle front. Meanwhile, some engineers have been sent to Chengdu to help to train the users.

On May 17th, the Ministry of Industry and Information also helped to provide 400 diamond saw blades as the spares for the cutting machines, 200 of which have been sent to Chengdu in the morning. 200 tons of SDIC and 25 tons of bleaching powder have been settled and on their way. According to the demands of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, 400 tents have been settled and ready for transporting. By May 18th, 50 car lifts, 200 loaders, 60 excavators and 120 bulldozers have been ready for use by the disaster-hit areas.

V. Plans and Arrangements for the Production Recovery Group

After the disaster, the Office of National Headquarter for Earthquake Resistance and Disaster Relief of the State Council set up 9 working groups on May 14th, among which the production recovery group is led by the Ministry of Industry and Information, and participated by the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Commerce. With the overall arrangements by the National Headquarter, the production recovery group will strengthen the organization and coordination, improve the system for cooperation, propose and implement the related policies and measures, and work actively to recover the production in industry and agriculture.

The general principle for the production recovery and the post-disaster reconstruction: human-orientated, life first and production afterwards, easy things first and hard things afterwards; recovering while rescuing, and rebuilding while planning; arrange the production recovery and post-disaster reconstruction with the guide of the scientific view on development.

Promote the production recovery and post-disaster reconstruction in an all-around way according to different situations. For agriculture and the rural areas, the most urgent task is to rebuild the homes. For the factories and mineries, the reconstruction should be conducted accordingly. The slightly damaged can be rebuilt while recovering production; the seriously damaged should recover their production after the reconstruction. The parts with devastating damage should be the focus of our work and combine efforts from all sources. The central government and the governments of all levels would take their own responsibilities. The enterprises and institutions on the regional level should conduct their work with the focus on their regions with the support from the central government on personnel, finance and resources. For the national enterprises, especially for the seriously damaged ones, with the joint efforts from the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the State Administration of Taxation, the People's Bank of China and the SASAC, the Ministry of Industry and Information would conduct careful analysis and research, propose practical plans for the production recovery and post-disaster reconstruction, and carry out the reconstruction actively.