Press Release from Xinhua News Agency on the Behalf of the Chinese Communist Party:
"A chartered plane carrying the first batch of relief goods China committed to Japan's earthquake rescue operations took off from Shanghai late Monday afternoon.
The first relief package sent to Japan is composed of 2,000 blankets, 900 cotton tents and 200 emergency lights, and valued at 7.2 million yuan (1.1 million U.S. dollars), said Yang Hongbin, a Shanghai-based official with China's Ministry of Commerce.
Yang said the China Eastern Airlines aircraft, a Boeing 777-200, was scheduled to touch down at Tokyo Haneda International Airport at about 8 p.m. Monday.
The ministry announced Monday that China will provide 30 million yuan worth of emergency humanitarian assistance to Japan following the massive 9.0-magnitude earthquake and ensuing tsunami that have left thousands dead or missing.
China's military was responsible for collecting this first batch of aid, as required by related emergency response mechanism and several government agencies, the Defense Ministry said in a separate statement, adding that the mission was accompolished in the shortest period of time.
China sent a 15-member international rescue team to Japan on Sunday, while local governments and China's chapter of the Red Cross have announced separate donations to aid the quake relief actions.
The rescue team started search and rescue operations Monday morning in Ofunato city of Japan's northeastern Iwate Prefecture, according to the website of the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo."
This primary source is a press release from Xinhua News Agency, which is affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party. Here, the immediate urgency of aid to the Japanese East Coast is heavily emphasized, with a list of the provided disaster relief items for the displaced: “2,000 blankets, 900 cotton tents and 200 emergency lights, and valued at 7.2 million yuan (1.1 million U.S. dollars).”
Something important to note that this publicized gesture likely possessed both altruistic and strategic motives. On one hand, it was a return of favor to Japan for the aid their government provided after China's 2008 earthquake. However, international aid efforts also generally serve as a virtue signaling gesture to gain in upper hand in future geopolitical disputes for many nations; given the tumultuous history of Sino-Japanese relations, the move to provide generous aid likely inspired by China's 2010s aspirations in martime negotiations with Japan.