Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/in-china-an-evolving-effort-to-establish-a-place-on-world-stage Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript The devastating quake in China and the government's response and transparency seem to have altered views both inside and outside the country. Margaret Warner speaks with Assistant Foreign Minister He Yafei about the changes within China. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. MARGARET WARNER: Minister He Yafei, thank you for being with us. HE YAFEI, China’s Assistant Foreign Minister: It's a pleasure to be with you. MARGARET WARNER: And my condolences on the tragedy of the Sichuan quake. HE YAFEI: Thank you very much. This disaster happened about two weeks ago. And now the whole nation, of course, is fully mobilized. MARGARET WARNER: It appears that there's been an interesting and unusual reaction from the world to China and from China to the world generated by this quake. Do you agree? HE YAFEI: Yes. Yes, I think the humane nature, it's in the human nature to side with the victims. And, of course, people are seeing, are witnessing the whole nation, as I said, is united.And, again, we're — China is grateful, of course, to the assistance that is pouring in from countries all over the world, including the United States. MARGARET WARNER: What I'm referring to, though, is — for instance, 30 years ago, the Chinese government wouldn't even admit there was a quake. This time you were very open about it and both to foreign and domestic media. Why the change? And what conclusion have you drawn from the reaction that it has engendered? HE YAFEI: Well, we are open. And we certainly welcome, you know, relief assistance, relief aid from other countries. And we believe, as I told you before the interview, that now we are in the world facing lots of challenges.Natural disasters are one of them. Other things, like terrorism, you know, infectious diseases, all these challenges are what we call nontraditional security threats. No single nation can handle it and needs collective efforts.