Joint response
Last week’s US-China Disaster Management Exchange, which concluded on Saturday, boosted military-to-military dialogue between the two countries and will continue to help improve disaster response and rescue capabilities, military officials from both countries said.
The annual exchange is a risk-reduction exercise between the United States Army Pacific and People’s Liberation Army that was first held in 2005.
It focuses on international humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. This year’s event kicked off on Nov 12 in Nanjing, Jiangsu province.
“The exchange is foundational to US and China military relations,” said General Robert Brown, commander of US Army Pacific. “Military-tomilitary dialogue between the US and China helps us to gain mutual understanding — it helps us build trust and also reduces the risk of misperception and miscalculation.
“Exercises like this will absolutely increase practical deconfliction in understanding each other’s procedures and processes in response to real world disasters.”
Lieutenant General Qin Weijiang, deputy commander of the PLA’s Eastern Theatre Command, said the exchanges have continued to mature, and he was glad to see significant improvement in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief capabilities and coordination mechanisms.
“I hope the mechanism, organization methods and content of such exercises will continue to develop in the future and that the forces involved will be expanded so that we can improve our disaster response and enhance our capabilities to yield concrete results,” he said.
This year’s exchange, carried out in the setting of hypothetical earthquake disaster in a third country, called for US and Chinese military cooperation to provide assistance.
It included an academic discussion by experts and a coordination center in which both armies made plans for operational, management and evacuation procedures.
They then assessed the disaster conditions and jointly started search and rescue, first aid and the evacuation of victims.
Yang Tao, the Chinese leader of the search and rescue team, said he had gained a lot from exchanges with US personnel.
After sharing operational methods and other information, he learned additional basic rescue techniques, such as how to use hydraulic demolition tools and new ways to tie ropes, which will improve his rescue capabilities.
He said all the soldiers from both sides exhibited high levels of professionalism and were meticulous in their work. Whether pounding in a nail or tying a rope, they would do it again if the result was substandard.
“Because we all know that the more solid our skills are, next time when we come across someone who needs our help, the more likely they are to survive,” Yang said. “This is the common ground we reached at the very beginning of the exchange.”
Dong Bo, the Chinese leader of the medical team, said the Chinese troops had worked well with the eight US soldiers who joined the team. From emergency care to follow-up medical treatment, they completed every step together.
Even though there was a language barrier, body language and translation apps meant they had no problem communicating.
“Everyone was involved and got along very well, which I think helped enhance mutual cooperation in humanitarian assistance and accumulated valuable experience,” he said.
Colonel Roy Speaks, the US senior facilitator, said he was excited to see the interactions between US and Chinese soldiers, particularly at the practical field exchange site, where the PLA soldiers and US soldiers worked together to learn different ways to extract victims in a disaster area and get them to safety.
“They utilized each other’s knowledge and experience,” he said. “That became a common bond between what the PLA soldiers and the American soldiers were doing, and that’s the most rewarding thing for me.”
The exchange is foundational to US and China military relations.” General Robert Brown, commander of US Army Pacific