On the evening of January 5, 2005, Premier Wen Jiabao of the State Council left Beijing for Jakarta, capital of Indonesia, by a special plane to attend the Special ASEAN Leader's Meeting on the Aftermath of Earthquake and Tsunami to be held on January 6.

What makes this Boeing 747-400 all-passenger plane of Air China different from its past experiences is that it is heading for Jakarta with 16 tons of emergency assistance suppliers offered by the Chinese government to Indonesia.

Spokesman Liu Jianchao of the delegation headed by Premier Wen told the reporter that on January 2 after return from visit to the miners of Tongchuan, Shaanxi, Premier Wen had instructed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to make full use of the space in the plane to bring as many as possible supplies which are needed urgently by our neighboring country. Following the instruction of Premier Wen, the Foreign Ministry immediately required all the members of the delegation to try their best to cut down check-in baggage to make room for the assistance supplies. Related ministries including the Ministry of Commerce quickly prepared food, drugs, life necessities, relief equipment and other materials and loaded them on time.

It is said that this load of supplies will be delivered to the disaster-hit area as soon as possible.