CHENGDU, May16 -- On May 14, the Earthquake Relief Headquarters Office under the State Council, the Ministry of Emergency Management (MEM), and the People's Government of Sichuan Province jointly held the “Emergency Mission-2021” earthquake relief drill. The drill simulated a magnitude-7.5 earthquake strike in Ya’an City, Sichuan Province, with the main piece of the drill taking place in Ya’an and the rest in Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan Province, Panzhihua City, Leshan City, Aba Tibet and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Ganzi Tibet Autonomous Prefecture and Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture.

During the drill, the joint operations commanding center of the Central Military Commission and the joint operations commanding center under the PLA Western Theatre Command launched an emergency response in sync with the earthquake relief headquarters of Sichuan Province. The professional disaster relief troops of the PLA and the People’s Armed Police (PAP) Force stationed in Sichuan, carrying heavy machinery, arrived at the drilling venues on motorized vehicles within two hours. At the same time, a Y-20 plane sent members of the China International Search and Rescue (CISAR) to Sichuan to conduct cross-region support.

At the simulated earthquake site with damaged roads and collapsed bridges, servicemen from a detachment of the PAP 2nd Mobile Contingent, with the help of driverless dozers, joined forces with workers from the Ya’an Road & Bridge Company to conduct rush repair of the road; the surface relief detachment of an engineer brigade under the PLA 77th Group Army combined the 50-ton ferrying rafts at full speed to open a fast track for large machinery to join the relief work as soon as possible.

According to a leading official of the PLA Western Theater Command, the drill simulated scenarios on such subjects as real operational commanding, speedy delivery of troops, on-site force deployment and emergency management. The drill also witnessed participation of a large amount of new rescue equipment and coordination of different kinds of military and civil emergency rescue forces.

The drill highlighted ermergency response, force projection, search and rescue operations. The military and civil emergency planning systems, commanding and coordinating mechanisms, and rescue and relief capabilities got tested through the drill, said the official.