The Chinese Embassy in Vietnam, entrusted by the Red Cross Society of China, makes a cash donation of $50,000 to the Vietnam Red Cross Society to help Vietnam’s flood-stricken communities, August 23, 2017. (Photo :Liu Gang)

Chinese and Vietnamese people in need in recent years have benefited from an intensified humanitarian cooperation between the two countries in maritime search and rescue, disaster relief, and emergency rescue.

Severe floods and landslides hit Vietnam’s northwest provinces this summer, killing 29, leaving 16 missing and damaging thousands of houses. China sent its solicitude and lent a helpful hand immediately after the disaster happened.

The Chinese Embassy in Vietnam, entrusted by the Red Cross Society of China (RCSC), donated $50,000 to the Vietnam Red Cross Society (VRCS) on August 23 to help Vietnam’s flood-stricken communities pull through and rebuild their homes.

RCSC was the first to offer help to Vietnam, and it was also this year’s second assistance from the Chinese organization to the Southeast Asian nation.

It’s proof of cooperation and mutual aid between the two organizations and the two peoples, said Nguyen Thi Xuan Thu, President of VRCS, adding that she hopes humanitarian cooperation could give a boost to bilateral ties.

Thanks to the reinforced collaboration between border ports of both sides, a Chinese sailor from Hong Kong who suffered from a sudden stroke on a ship heading from China for Thailand was saved in July.

The Vietnam Maritime Search and Rescue Coordination Center, after receiving an emergency message from the China Maritime Search and Rescue Center, coordinated its branch center and the costal information station in Ho Chi Minh City to send the sailor to a local hospital.

On September 7, the Dongxing Border Inspection Station in south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region saved two Vietnamese critical patients through its “emergency assistance channel.”

Thanks to the channel, one of them, who was in coma caused by serious head injuries, was sent to a Chinese hospital for treatment due to poor local medical conditions.

On the same day, another Vietnamese man who fell into a coma after a car accident, received emergency treatment in China as a result of the streamlined customs clearance process provided by the station after it received help from the border ports in Mong Cai, a city bordering Dongxing.

Since the “green channel” opened a year ago, the station has provided 170 cross-border assistance for critically ill patients, data shows.

The Youyiguan Port, also the Friendship Pass and known as the main port in south China to Vietnam, also offered “green access” to Vietnamese suffering from sudden diseases. A series of touching stories have made the long-standing pass an impressive and warm name among the peoples of both sides.