2008 Sichuan earthquake in the context of "Chinese economic stimulus program"

The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) are the military of the Republic of Singapore, responsible for protecting and defending the security interests and the sovereignty of the country. A component of the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF), the armed forces have four service branches: the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Digital and Intelligence Service. An integrated force, it is the most capable, robust, technologically sophisticated and powerful military in the Southeast Asia region. The SAF is headed by the chief of defence force, appointed by the President, on the advice of the Cabinet.

Since its inception, the SAF has been involved in various operations, both domestically and abroad. These include peacekeeping missions in places such as Afghanistan, Iraq and Timor Leste as well as disaster relief operations in various countries, including the 1970 Bhola cyclone, 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, 2008 Sichuan earthquake, April 2015 Nepal earthquake, Hurricane Harvey, among others. In addition, the SAF has assisted the United Nations to oversee and supervise the electoral process in countries such as Cambodia, Ethiopia, Namibia and South Africa.

China was the host nation of the 2008 Summer Olympics. It was represented by the Chinese Olympic Committee (COC), and the team of selected athletes were officially known as Team China.

As the host country, China had a total of 639 athletes qualified for places on the national team, being the largest in its Olympic history. Chinese athletes qualified to compete in all 28 Olympic sports for the first time. Among these athletes, 469 were competing at their first Olympics, 165 had competed in Athens 2004, and 37 in Sydney 2000. Diver Guo Jingjing, shooter Tan Zongliang and basketballer Li Nan, made their fourth Olympic appearances, having first competed in Atlanta 1996. China also included 460 officials, making a total of 1,099 delegates. According to Olympic protocol, China entered as the last nation into the Beijing National Stadium during the opening ceremony, and was led by basketballer Yao Ming and Lin Hao, a 9-year-old primary school student who had rescued two schoolmates during the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.

The Yangtze plate, also called the South China block or the South China subplate, comprises the bulk of southern China. It is separated on the east from the Okinawa plate by a rift that forms the Okinawa Trough which is a back-arc basin, on the south by the Sunda plate and the Philippine Sea plate, and on the north and west by the Eurasian plate. The Longmenshan Fault on the latter border was the site of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake.

The Yangtze plate was formed by the disaggregation of the Rodinia supercontinent 750 million years ago, in the Neoproterozoic era. South China rifted away from the Gondwana supercontinent in the Silurian. During the formation of the great supercontinent Pangaea, South China was a smaller, separate continent located off the east coast of the supercontinent and drifting northward. In the Triassic, the Yangtze plate collided with the North China plate, thereby connecting with Pangaea, and formed the Sichuan basin. In the Cenozoic, the Yangtze plate was influenced by the collision of the Indian plate and Eurasian plate creating the uplifting of the Longmen Mountains. Its southward motion is accommodated along the Red River fault.

Urban search and rescue (abbreviated as USAR or US&R) is a type of technical rescue operation that involves the location, extrication, and initial medical stabilization of victims trapped in an urban area, namely structural collapse due to natural disasters, war, terrorism or accidents, mines and collapsed trenches.

The causes of USAR incidents can be categorised as accidental and deliberate.

Mount Qingcheng (Chinese: 青城山; pinyin: Qīngchéng Shān) is a sacred Taoist mountain in Dujiangyan, Chengdu, Sichuan, China.

It is considered one of the birthplaces of Taoism and one of the most important Taoist religious sites in China. In Taoist mythology, it was the site of the Yellow Emperor's studies with Ning Fengzi. As an important site of the Taoism, it became host to many Taoist monasteries and temples. The mountain has 36 peaks. The mountain is also home to Dujiangyan Giant Panda Center and since 2000 has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Mount Qingcheng was affected by the Wenchuan Earthquake in 2008.

Ai Weiwei (/ˈaɪ weɪˈweɪ/ EYE way-WAY; Chinese: 艾未未; pinyin: Ài Wèiwèi, IPA: [âɪ wêɪ.wêɪ]; born 28 August 1957) is a Chinese contemporary artist, documentarian, and activist. Ai grew up in the far northwest of China, where he lived under harsh conditions due to his father's exile. As an activist, he has been openly critical of the Chinese government and its stance on democracy and human rights. He investigated government corruption and cover-ups, in particular the Sichuan schools corruption scandal following the collapse of "tofu-dreg schools" in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. In April 2011, Ai Weiwei was arrested at Beijing Capital International Airport for "economic crimes", and detained for 81 days without charge. Ai Weiwei emerged as a vital instigator in Chinese cultural development, an architect of Chinese modernism, and one of the nation's most vocal political commentators.

Ai Weiwei encapsulates political conviction and poetry in his many sculptures, photographs, and public works. Since being allowed to leave China in 2015, he has lived in Portugal, Germany, and the United Kingdom.