Disaster response cooperation a necessity

After the collapse of a dam of the Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy hydroelectricity project in late July caused severe floods in parts of the Attapeu province in southern Laos, China offered immediate and extensive assistance to control the situation.

The floods in Laos have taught us a serious lesson. Given the rising non-traditional security threats, such as climate change, natural and human-induced disasters, and environmental pollution, there is an urgent need for cooperation between China and the member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in non-traditional security fields.

China’s participation in the rescue and relief operations after the dam collapse is a good example of how China can develop, and strengthen, cooperation with the ASEAN member states in such fields.

Apart from providing relief and aid, China also sent a fully equipped medical team from the People’s Liberation Army to Laos, which arrived at the disaster site two days after the dam collapse. The PLA team could be speedily deployed because the two countries’ militaries were engaged in a joint humanitarian rescue and medical drill in Vientiane.

Chinese businesses in Laos also offered emergency help. Since many Chinese companies are from the construction and telecommunications sectors, they provided related equipment and technical support for the local authorities. For instance, China Power helped rebuild the damaged roads and bridges, which expedited the rescue and relief operations.

Chinese civil society, too, lent a helping hand to Laos, complementing the government’s response. Non-governmental disaster relief groups such as Blue Sky Rescue have grown rapidly in China since the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, by developing expertise and building capacity through search and rescue operations, medical assistance, and epidemic prevention and control. In fact, several Chinese civil rescue teams helped the search and rescue operations and provided the initial medical treatment for some of the affected people in Laos.

China-ASEAN cooperation in Laos has been strengthened because of bilateral cooperation, with related regional organizations and private players playing a bigger role in such fields. Three lessons can be drawn from China-ASEAN cooperation in many non-traditional security areas.

China and ASEAN members accord high priority to economic and social development, which is closely linked to non-traditional security threats. The Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy project is among the hydropower projects that represent the efforts of the Laotian government to boost its economic growth by exporting electricity. And human factors caused the dam collapse, though continuous heavy rain worsened the situation.

The frequency of extreme weather events is likely to increase in countries in Southeast Asia, a region likely to be most affected by climate change. The regional countries therefore need to enhance their disaster management capacity. Indeed, these countries have learnt valuable lessons from natural disasters in the past and adopted good practices to mitigate the impacts of climate change, but they lack adequate resources and capacity, which means there is a huge scope for deeper cooperation.

Since China has achieved remarkable economic progress, it has more resources at its disposal. And the Chinese government and military have accumulated invaluable experience in disaster management since the Wenchuan quake. This means China and ASEAN members are complementary in terms of resources, capacity and practice.

Moreover, China’s economic interests in Southeast Asia have increased significantly. According to the Ministry of Commerce, for China, Laos was the eighth-largest outbound investment destination in 2017, reflecting the overall trend of China-ASEAN economic ties. It is in China’s interest therefore to help ASEAN member states improve their disaster management mechanisms.

China’s international cooperation is primarily based on the state-to-state model, which also applies to China-ASEAN cooperation. Military cooperation is crucial for responding to natural disasters, as the armed forces can transport, even airlift people and equipment in huge quantities at short notice, which are valuable to search, rescue and relief operations.

The PLA has developed strong disaster response capacity, because non-combat operations were made part of the Chinese military’s missions after the Wenchuan quake. For instance, the PLA is one of the few militaries in the world to have hospital ships, which are of great use in humanitarian missions. And the Laotian case shows that strong bilateral military ties enable swift response to emergencies in one country by the other, and vice versa.

AHA Centre (or ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management) has become the primary coordinator of disaster management in Southeast Asia. Swiftly responding to the dam collapse in Laos, the center facilitated coordination between the Laotian government, international organizations and humanitarian rescue and relief teams.

China began cooperating with ASEAN members in disaster management in 2014, by giving grants worth of $8.1 million over three years to support capacity building, including the establishment of the AHA Centre. So it is worth exploring what channels and areas are suitable for strengthening China’s cooperation with the center.

Since the Chinese companies operating in Laos know the local terrain and have access to the local people, they can help the rescue and relief organizations to bring initial assistance to the affected people in case of an emergency. However, they should be aware that while high-quality safety standards reduce the likelihood of manmade disasters, extreme natural events are unpreventable and can cause widespread devastation, so they should pay special attention to sound emergency response planning.

While Chinese nongovernmental organizations have made impressive progress in disaster management within the country, overseas operations are new to them. To be precise, for Chinese NGOs, the Nepal earthquake in 2015 was their first overseas experience. Southeast Asian countries have vibrant civil societies, with domestic NGOs and local branches of international NGOs such as Mercy Relief and Tzu Chi being actively involved in disaster management, both natural and manmade. As such, they could be the first point of communication and cooperation for the Chinese NGOs.

As China-ASEAN cooperation deepens and expands, there is a need to have effective coordination to optimize the mobilization and allocation of resources and capacity. To begin with, the existing China-ASEAN mechanisms can facilitate better coordination, though.

More importantly, the private sector in China needs to look for new channels for coordinating with others, as coordination with the local authorities will help the Chinese companies and NGOs better understand the situation on the ground, which in turn will help them to more effectively provide assistance. And although there is no need to centralize China’s response to disasters in foreign countries, the Chinese government should ensure there is good coordination among the various Chinese organizations engaged in rescue and relief missions abroad.