China building emergency radio broadcast network

BEIJING - China is constructing a special emergency radio broadcasting system to spread rescue and relief information in disaster-affected areas.

The State General Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, China National Radio and other departments are jointly building the broadcasting network, according to a statement released after a Tuesday symposium on the construction of national emergency radio services.

The network is expected to be put into operation by the end of 2015, the statement said.

China currently has no special system for releasing essential information, such as warnings, relief materials transfers and reconstruction, to people in disaster-affected regions.

The plan, which experts have called an important measure for coping with disasters, was inspired by a similar but smaller-scale radio network established after a fatal 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit Lushan in southwest China's Sichuan province on April 20.

The radio service, jointly initiated by China National Radio and local radio and TV stations, broadcast government relief measures and secondary disaster warnings to disaster-affected people via loudspeakers, AM radio frequencies and satellite facilities between April 22 and May 23.