Following the outbreak of the tsunami disasters, the Chinese government declared on December 26 that it would provide assistance materials and cash worth RMB21.63 million to related countries hit by the disasters. Given to the development of the disasters, especially the huge losses suffered by the people of those countries, Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing held an emergent meeting participated by officials of the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Health, the Seismological Bureau and the military forces on the evening of December 29. The meeting decided to considerably raise the Chinese government's material and cash assistance to the above countries and send rescue and medical teams to help them with the relief efforts.
The emergency assistance materials provided by the Chinese government worth RMB10 million to Sri Lanka have been shipped to Colombo on December 29. The first batch of assistance materials worth RMB5 million to Indonesia was loaded in Guangzhou Airport on the afternoon of December 30 and will arrive at the North Sumatra Province of Indonesia on the same night.
The China International Rescue Team (35 members) organized by China Seismological Bureau will leave Beijing by chartered plane and arrive at the disaster hit areas of Indonesia on the evening of December 30. The 15 staffs of epidemics and infectious department selected from Shanghai by the Ministry of Health will leave Shanghai by civil aircraft on the evening of December 30 and arrive at the Phuket Island on the morning next day after a stopover in Bangkok, and the 6 medical staffs of Surgery of Trauma selected from Guangdong province will leave for Thailand to provide assistance on December 31. 5 DNA experts of the Chinese Academy of Sciences will leave for the disaster hit areas of Thailand by CA979 on the evening of December 30 to help identify victims. Earlier the Chinese government also sent 1 disaster assessment expert to Sri Lanka to help the UN disaster relief agencies with the disaster assessment efforts.