China yesterday accepted the assistance of a South Korean rescue team and now has allowed other nearby nations to assist in the search and resuce efforts after Monday’s devestating earthquake:

CHINA may allow more countries to help in rescue efforts in the earthquake-devastated south-west region, a Chinese embassy spokesman says.

Beijing has agreed so far to allow rescue teams from Russia, Singapore, South Korea and Japan, as well as Taiwan - which China considers to be part of its territory - and Hong Kong.

"I personally expect more foreign rescue teams being allowed into China," Wang Baodong, spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, told reporters.

The offers from the four nations were accepted based on their proximity to China, "which may ensure promptness of the aid.

"As I understand, this is the first time in history for foreign professional rescuers to join in Chinese disaster relief work."  [AFP]

It is good to see that China is now accepting the help being offered.  I was watching a news report yesterday where some Australian news team walked into some village in the mountains and were interviewing this Chinese guy with his legs pinned by rubble in his house but no rescuers had gotten to him yet.  It seems like that in some of this outlying villages the Chinese could use some help.  The news report said about 150,000 Chinese soldiers have been deployed to help with the rescue effort with many of them ironically forward deployed in the area before the earthquake in response to the Tibet protests. 

With estimates that possibly over 50,000 people have died in the earthquake, it makes the whole controversy over the Olympic torch seem pretty unimportant now.

Popularity: 5%