Friday, July 28 2006 10:53 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Beijing: After decades of shying away from taking international aid, China has warmed up to global assistance during natural disasters.

The devastating earthquake in China's Hebei province July 28, 1976 not only killed more than 242,000 people and caused economic devastation. It also destroyed the dogmatic attitude of an inward-looking nation that until then had spurned all international aid.

During the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), with the country in social and ideological chaos, the leftist leaders of the time regarded the refusal of aid and sympathy from the international community as an opportunity to "display the socialist system's superiority of being self-reliant".

Thanks to Deng Xiaoping's policy of reform and opening up the country to the rest of the world, much has changed in the past three decades.

The Chinese economy has rocketed ahead, growing at an annual average rate of 9.3 percent. The country is also showing an increasingly mature attitude toward international aid in times of crisis.

When the SARS epidemic rocked China and the rest of the world in 2003, the Chinese government joined hands with worldwide medical and scientific experts to prevent and control the killer disease.

"China now has a more open and practical attitude toward international assistance, displaying a highly responsible attitude as a major nation in the world," said Zhu Feng, international security project director of the School of International Studies at Beijing University.

"Back in the 1970s, the government considered natural disasters a domestic issue and thought it was humiliating to receive international assistance," he said.

"But after decades of reform and opening up, China has come to realise that instead of losing face, it is duty bound to cooperate with other countries to control crises that may threaten mankind," Zhu Feng said.

At the UN 60th anniversary summit in September 2005 in New York, Chinese President Hu Jintao said that in the long history of human progress, the fate of people around the world has never been as close and interdependent as today.

"Common goals unite us and common challenges bind us together. All countries must unite to build a truly harmonious world with long-lasting peace and common prosperity," he said.

The change of attitude appeared long before the SARS outbreak.

When the Greater Hinggan Mountains forest in northeast China was ravaged by major forest fires in 1987 - burning 1.48 million acres of forest and land killing more than 200 people and leaving more than 50,000 homeless - China appealed for support from the international community and established a special work committee to facilitate global relief operations.

In July 1991, 18 Chinese provinces suffered serious flooding with total economic losses of 9 billion yuan ($1.1 billion).

A press conference was held on behalf of the central government to describe the flood damage and appeal for worldwide support.

This was China's first large-scale international appeal. A total of 2.3 billion yuan ($288 million) was collected, 2.3 times China's annual central relief fund budget.

"Natural disasters have nothing to do with the political system. Nor do they reflect a nation's strength, because relying on oneself does not preclude receiving international assistance," said Lin Xiaoguang, a research fellow with the International Strategy Research Center of the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

In 2004, China launched its largest ever overseas aid-and-relief operation after a major tsunami struck in South-East Asia, South Asia and parts of Africa.

When Hurricane Katrina ravaged the southern US last August, China offered $5 million worth of assistance and emergency relief materials.

China has also sent relief aid to other countries including Russia, earthquake-stricken Iran and Afghanistan.

"So when China receives international aid to deal with its domestic emergencies and in return offers assistance to others when they are hit by crisis, the world will see a more confident and responsible nation," said an official from the Party School of the CPC Central Committee.