Authorities activate emergency response, send support teams to Xizang after deadly quake

Multiple Chinese ministries have activated emergency response programs and dispatched work teams to support rescue operations after a deadly earthquake struck southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region on Tuesday morning.

The 6.8-magnitude earthquake hit Dingri County in the city of Xigaze at 09:05 on Tuesday, with at least 126 people confirmed dead and 188 others injured, while rescue efforts are ongoing to locate possible survivors buried beneath the rubble.

Following the quake, China's National Disaster Reduction Commission raised the emergency response to Level II, the second highest in the country's four-tier system.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development has also launched a Level II emergency response and dispatched a special team to offer guidance on the post-quake emergency assessment of buildings and municipal facilities, carry out rush repairs, and oversee the construction of temporary houses.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Emergency Management have urgently allocated 100 million yuan (over 13.6 million U.S. dollars) from the central natural disaster relief fund to support Xizang in its search and rescue operations, the relocation of affected residents, and the reconstruction of damaged houses.

The State Grid Tibet Electric Power Company has sent its first batch of personnel, including six vehicles and disaster relief supplies to the quake-hit zones to conduct power restoration efforts.

Further aid has come from the Red Cross Society of China, which has swiftly allocated 4,600 disaster relief supplies, including tents, quilts, thermal jackets, and folding beds, helping in the smooth relocation and basic living conditions of those impacted.

It also dispatched a work team and rescue personnel to conduct on-site assessments of the disaster zones on Tuesday afternoon and help carry out rescue and relief work.

The National Health Commission has also deployed experts from Peking Union Medical College Hospital and West China Hospital of Sichuan University. The commission has also called on national-level medical emergency response teams from neighboring provinces and regions to make preparations to join the rescue operations as needed.

A total of 19 aftershocks with a magnitude of 3.0 or higher have been recorded as of 17:00 on Tuesday.

The Ministry of Natural Resources had earlier on Tuesday afternoon raised the geological disaster defense response level, and also dispatched a work team to offer guidance on conducting secondary geological disaster assessments and providing emergency technical support in the quake-affected areas.

The China Railway Qinghai-Xizang Group promptly closed specific railway lines and halted some trains following the earthquake.

It also coordinated departments responsible for infrastructure, electrical systems, power supply, and construction to conduct a thorough inspection of facilities, including railway tracks, bridges, tunnels, and electrical systems in the affected areas. This effort is aimed at mitigating the earthquake's impact on railway operations and ensuring the safety of train services.

Furthermore, the Ministry of Natural Resources has released the first remote sensing image of the earthquake in Dingri County. The image shows that the epicenter is only around 2.5 kilometers away from the local government offices in Tsogo Township, with two other townships and several villages in the vicinity, with a relatively dense population.

From the image, it can be seen that most of the Tsogo Lake is still frozen, indicating low temperatures in the region, which may pose further difficulties for the post-disaster relief work and the resettlement of affected people.

The ministry has also released the first three-dimensional topographical video of the earthquake. It shows residential settlements in the earthquake-affected areas of Dingri County being situated in the valleys, with some houses near the epicenter sustaining damage.

Footage from surveillance cameras at a photovoltaic power station situated just over 100 kilometers from the epicenter revealed significant swaying of facilities at the moment the quake struck. However, both indoor and outdoor equipment is said to be functioning normally and remains undamaged.

Personnel at the power station actively coordinated the safe relocation of local farmers and herdsmen in the surrounding areas, with all those located in the vicinity of the station having been been safely relocated with no casualties reported.

In addition, surveillance footage from eight gas stations located within a 100-kilometer radius of the epicenter showed goods falling from shelves, ceilings caving in, and cracks appearing on some walls, while some power outages were also experienced.

Despite these incidents, no casualties have been reported at the gas stations. Equipment and facilities are operating as usual, and there are ample fuel supplies in stock.

Authorities activate emergency response, send support teams to Xizang after deadly quake

A video featuring a former member of Unit 731, a notorious Japanese germ-warfare unit during World War II (WWII), was released on Thursday in northeast China's Harbin, revealing details of how the unit used meteorological data to conduct horrific bacterial experiments on human beings.

The video was released by the Exhibition Hall of Evidence of Crimes Committed by Unit 731 of the Japanese Imperial Army, in which former Unit 731 member Tsuruo Nishijima detailed how the unit used meteorological data to carry out a bacterial dispersal experiment.

The video was recorded in 1997 by Japanese scholar Fuyuko Nishisato and donated to the exhibition hall in 2019, according to the hall, which was built on the former site of the headquarters of Unit 731 in Harbin, the capital city of Heilongjiang Province.

Jin Shicheng, director of the Department of Publicity, Education and Exhibition of the exhibition hall, said that Nishijima joined Unit 731 in October 1938 and served in the unit's meteorological squad. The squad was not a simple observation section but rather an auxiliary force supporting the unit's field human experiments by measuring wind direction, wind speed, and other conditions to ensure optimal experimental results, according to Jin.

Nishijima confirmed in the footage that "the meteorological squad had to be present at every field experiment." He testified to the "rainfall experiments" conducted by Unit 731, which involved aircraft releasing bacterial agents at extremely low altitudes.

At a field-testing site in Anda City, Heilongjiang, Unit 731 aircraft descended to about 50 meters above the ground. They sprayed bacterial culture liquids onto "maruta" -- human test subjects -- who were tied to wooden stakes. Each experiment involved about 30 people, spaced roughly 5 meters apart. After the experiments, the victims were loaded into sealed trucks and transported back to the unit, where their symptoms and disease progression were recorded over a period of several days.

"Unit 731's bacterial weapons were dropped by aircraft from a height of 50 meters in the open air. Therefore, the meteorological squad needed to observe wind direction and speed, which directly affected the precision and accuracy of the bacterial weapons deployment," said Jin.

Nishijima recounted the harrowing experience of the human test subjects.

"They were fully aware that inhaling the substances would certainly lead to death, so they closed their eyes and held their breath to avoid breathing them in. Their resistance prevented the experiment from proceeding. To compel them to comply, they were forced at gunpoint to open their mouths and lift their heads," said Nishijima.

These experiments, disguised as "scientific research," were in fact systematic tests of biological warfare weapons conducted by the Japanese military. The data generated from these inhumane activities became "research findings" shared among the Japanese army medical school, the medical community, and the military at large.

"At that time, the entire Japanese medical community tacitly approved, encouraged, and even participated in the criminal acts of Unit 731. The unit comprised members from Japan's medical and academic sectors who served the Japanese war of aggression against China. Thus, Unit 731 was not just a military unit but represented an organized and systematic criminal enterprise operating from the top down," said Jin.

Unit 731 was a top-secret biological and chemical warfare research base established in Harbin as the nerve center for Japanese biological warfare in China and Southeast Asia during WWII.

At least 3,000 people were used for human experiments by Unit 731, and Japan's biological weapons killed more than 300,000 people in China.

Video offers details of Japan's germ-warfare crimes in northeast China