Chinas emergency response becomes very advanced as drawing lessons from many bitter experience, China has made great progress in the development of disaster prevention and mitigation procedures.

Chinas emergency response system began to pool resources to reduce rather than only relieving disasters. Significant advances have been made in various fields, including institutional development, academic research, technical equipment manufacturing, medical treatment, international cooperation and public education.

On May 12, 2008, a devastating earthquake hit Wenchuan county in southwestern Chinas Sichuan province. It inflicted massive casualties and caused immeasurable material loss and mental suffering to the region and the country.

The SARS epidemic in 2003 acted as the catalyst for launching path breaking reform in Chinas emergency response system .Many initiatives were taken in field of China’s emergency management system. The Emergency Response Law of the Peoples Republic of China was enacted the Chinese government in 2007.

This law aimed to prevent and reduce the occurrence of emergencies; control, mitigate and eliminate the serious social harm caused by emergencies; regulate activities in response to emergencies; protect the lives and property of the people; and maintain national security, public security, environmental safety and public order. say preventionweb.net .

Following the restructuring of the emergency management system, the public health emergency management system has consequently undergone a significant change.

As a milestone event in history of Chinas emergency response ,on April 2011, Chinas ICL earthquake early warning system successfully sent out a first alert, making the country the third in the world, after Japan and Mexico, to have this early warning capability. To date, the system has successfully alerted experts to more than 10 destructive earthquakes.

In 2018, the China International Emergency Medical Team (in Sichuan) was classified as a Type 3 emergency medical team by the World Health Organization. This is the highest level in WHOs EMT initiative, and the team was the second in the world to obtain such a status.

The big move in institutional reform has also grabbed nationwide attention. In March of 2018, China established the Ministry of Emergency Management, integrating related functions of 13 different departments.

Previous experiences had demonstrated Chinas lack of unified strength and collective efficiency in emergency response scenarios, but now the establishment of the Ministry of Emergency Management has improved the situation on an institutional level. Specifically, a single department is responsible for prevention, response and rescue, as well as post-monitoring of emergencies.

With its ongoing development, the Ministry of Emergency Management will gather the concerted efforts of the whole country to further improve Chinas ability to respond to natural disasters in the future.

Although nature shows no mercy, every single step made in Chinas emergency response for disaster prevention, reduction and relief will translate to improved safety and greater protection of life and property.