FOREIGN HELP: After initially refusing offers of foreign aid workers, China welcomed a Japanese rescue team. The Foreign Ministry said Russian, South Korean and Singaporean teams would arrive soon. China had so far received international aid worth more than $100 million and materials worth more than $10 million, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said at a briefing. But it still needs supplies of tents, clothes, communication equipment, machines for disaster relief, and medicines, he said.
DOMESTIC AID: Chinese citizens have donated $192 million to help their quake-stricken countrymen, according to China’s Civil Affairs Ministry. In scale, the financial contributions have been unprecedented in China, which for decades taught its citizens that the state would take care of them.
DAM FEARS EASE: Fears about damage to a major dam in the quake zone appeared to ease. The Zipingpu dam had reportedly suffered cracks from the disaster, but there was no repair work or extra security at the dam when it was reached Thursday by an AP photographer. The government says “the dam will hold, but then the longer-term question is what to do with it — to keep it or dismantle it,” said Andrew Mertha of Washington University in St. Louis, author of a book on Chinese dams.
NO DISEASE: Health officials said there have been no outbreaks of disease so far, with workers rushing to inoculate survivors, supply them clean drinking water and find ways to dispose of an overwhelming number of corpses. “There are still bodies in the hills, and pits are being dug to bury them,” said Zhao Xiaoli, a nurse in the ruined town of Hanwang. “There’s no way to bring them down. It’s too dangerous.” Authorities advised that, to prevent disease, bodies should be cleaned on the spot and buried quickly.
