Hu Jintao, general secretary of the Central Committee of the CPC, state president, and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made an important directive on January 30, urging all related troops to go all out to support the disaster-stricken areas to combat disasters and carry out relief work, try every possible means to solve problems for disaster victims and make concerted efforts in the struggle for winning victory in fighting disasters and doing relief work.

　　The Central Military Commission and the PLA four general headquarters/departments immediately made arrangements for implementing Chairman Hu Jintao's important directive and ordered the whole PLA and the Armed Police Force (APF) to faithfully implement Chairman Hu Jintao's important directive. Troops stationed in the disaster-stricken areas must take the initiative to get contact with local governments and strive to undertake as many disaster relief missions as possible. For the missions assigned by the local governments, the troops must go all out to resolutely accomplish them no matter how great the difficulties might be.

　　Since January 10, most part of southern China has been hit by sustained low temperature, rain, snow and freezing weather. The PLA and the APF troops stationed in the disaster-stricken areas have responded quickly to take part in the fight against disasters and the disaster relief operations. When this manuscript was sent to the press, the PLA and the APF troops stationed in the disaster-stricken areas have sent out a total of 250,000-odd men/times of troops, 772,000-odd men/times of militiamen and reservists and 34,000-odd men/times of machineries and vehicles to take part in combating snow disaster and relief operations. The servicemen mainly undertake the missions of clearing away snow and ice from highways, doing rush repairs to power supply lines, evacuating and resettling disaster victims, rush-transporting disaster relief materials, giving medical treatment to the sick and patients suffering from cold-borne illness, providing necessities to stranded people, maintaining social order at airports and railway and bus stations, and reinforcing and repairing damaged residential houses in more than 90 worst-hit areas such as Changsha, Leiyang, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Wuhan ,Guangzhou and Guiyang cities and 23 railway and highway routes such as the Beijing-Zhuhai Railway and the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway, etc. About 14,000 tons of materials, 5,300 sets of antiskid chains, 419,000 cotton quilts and 219,000 cotton-padded clothes have been urgently transferred from military units and delivered to the disaster-stricken areas. The PLA Air Force also dispatched five IL-76 aircraft to airlift cotton quilts and personnel doing rush-repairs to power grid. In addition, another 100-odd transport planes and helicopters are on standby, ready at any time to carry out disaster-relief missions.

　　(Feb 2, PLA Daily)