Chinese medical team provides critical aid to Vanuatu earthquake victims

Despite limited medical resources, a group of medical specialists from China has been doing their best to assist and treat victims of Vanuatu's recent devastating earthquakes.

A 7.3-magnitude quake struck the Pacific island nation on Tuesday, claiming at least 14 lives, injuring over 200 people, and causing widespread damage, including flattened homes and destroyed vehicles.

Adding to the devastation, a 6.1-magnitude quake struck again in the early hours of Sunday.

Amid the chaotic rescue efforts, a team of eight doctors and one nurse from China, who have been in Vanuatu since early September for a year-long rotation, is racing against time to assist patients at the Vila Central Hospital, the only hospital in the capital, Port Vila.

"Most of the patients suffered from fractures to the limbs -- arms or legs or hands," said Chen Mulei, leader of the medical team.

The hospital itself was also damaged in the earthquake.

"At the beginning, there's no electricity, there's no water and some medicine dropped off the walls," said Dr. Wang Rui.

The hospital quickly became overwhelmed with casualties, and to make matters worse, the operating theater was damaged and remained closed even days after the quake. As a result, all surgeries had to be moved to another part of the hospital.

"Each day we come here in the morning at about 08:00 to help all the rounds and see the seriously ill patients. And also in the afternoon and each night, we are on call. They moved [patients] to the ICU to do the operations. The operation room is very small and the resources are not enough. So there's limited treatment of the patients," the leader said.

"The most important [thing] is to reorganize the hospital and make sure every doctor has their job to treat the patients and the most important is the [work] of surgeons," Dr. Wang said.

Despite the obstacles and challenges of working in the aftermath of a major disaster, the team members said they are exactly where they want to be.

"It's our pleasure to come here and help this country with the earthquake [response]," Wang Guoji, a surgical nurse with the team.

Chinese medical team provides critical aid to Vanuatu earthquake victims

Chinese medical team provides critical aid to Vanuatu earthquake victims

Chinese medical team provides critical aid to Vanuatu earthquake victims

China is continuing to accelerate its green energy transition while meeting the considerable power demand, with renewable energy representing over 80 percent of the country's new installed power generation capacity.

The latest data showed that China's newly installed capacity for new energy power generation reached 258 million kilowatts from January to November, accounting for 81.5 percent of the total newly installed power generation capacity.

Experts say the renewable energy expansion can be partly attributed to China's efforts to accelerate the construction of new energy bases in its western areas to promote the distribution of new energy production in the more populous central and eastern parts of the country.

"For the next step, China's new energy power generation will be both centralized and distributed. It will also be land-based and sea-based. The generated power will be transmitted to other regions and consumed locally. We will continue promoting the construction of the wind and solar power generation bases in the sandy areas, rocky areas and deserts in the shelterbelt program in the northeast, north, and northwest regions of China. We will push forward the development of the water, wind, and solar power generation bases in southwestern China and the offshore wind power generation bases in eastern China. We will work to strengthen coordination in an effort to comprehensively diversify the supply of new energy," said Rao Jianye, director of the Clean Energy Research Institute under the China Electric Power Planning and Engineering Institute.

China is also improving its new power system, keeping enhancing the system's capability for receiving and distributing new energy so as to support the country's energy transition.

As China races to construct more new energy storage projects like photothermal energy storage projects and compressed-air energy storage projects, so far, the country's new energy storage has a capacity of over 60 million kilowatts, marking a significant achievement in maintaining the stable operation of the country's power system.

By the end of July, China's total installed capacity of wind and solar power had exceeded 1.2 billion kilowatts, more than doubling the 2020 level and achieving the 2030 target six years ahead of schedule.

New energy represents over 80 pct of China's new installed power generation capacity