LEAD: China to donate $4 mil. in tsunami early warning aid

Asian Economic News, Jan 31, 2005

BEIJING, Jan. 26 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING)

China will give equipment, training and research worth about $4 million to countries hit by last month's tsunami so they can set up an offshore earthquake early-warning network, a government official said Wednesday.

China's unconditional contribution answers Southeast Asia's ''basic'' need for a tsunami forecasting system, said Zhu Shilong, an international cooperation director under the China Earthquake Administration.

''This is to give them the very basics,'' Zhu said at the end of the two-day China-ASEAN Workshop on Earthquake-generated Tsunami Warning. ''Currently they have nothing.''

The Dec. 26 tsunamis left nearly 300,000 people dead or missing around the Indian Ocean rim.

Because earthquakes are rare in the Indian Ocean, people living on its shores do not know how to detect or respond to tsunamis, a U.N. official said at the workshop.

China has used a tsunami alert system since the 1930s, a Chinese Academy of Sciences professor at the workshop said, adding that it remains effective today. China has also learned from other experience how to handle disasters, officials said at the workshop.

''China is also a country of many natural disasters, and it has had related experiences,'' said Chen Jianmin, director of the China Earthquake Administration. ''China as an Asian nation totally has a responsibility and an obligation to support this project.''

A 10-point statement from the workshop calls for setting up an ''Asian Regional Seismographic Network,'' a system of seismographs, data processing and data transmission. China will give instruments, technical support, training and studies to this effort as required by the United Nations, the statement says.

China's contribution fills a void in Southeast Asia and shows the donor's growing influence outside its borders, workshop participants said.

''They have an intent that well matches our needs (in Indonesia),'' said Jan Sopaheluwakan, deputy earth sciences chairman with the Indonesian Institute of Sciences in Jakarta. ''Given the strength of the economy, it's quite natural to widen their influence.''

As of Tuesday, the Chinese government had pledged $83 million for disaster relief, while private donations totaled $45 million, according to official media.

Some workshop participants voiced concern that China was acting unilaterally instead of joining international tsunami early warning efforts.

Chinese officials said they would work with the United Nations and follow the agreement reached last week in Japan at a disaster reduction conference to establish a U.N.-backed early warning system for the Indian Ocean and beyond by 2007.

At the Beijing workshop, the 94 participants from 26 countries talked mostly about science and the complexities of putting an early warning system into place. Reading the Earth accurately and reaching affected people quickly via telecommunications were key issues, said Jim Buika, senior manager with the Pacific Disaster Center in Hawaii.

An early warning system may also include routine awareness, such as teaching children how to flee a tsunami or showing businessmen how to build tsunami-resistant coastal resorts.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.