Premier Li Keqiang has called for efforts to promote innovation-driven development as a new round of technological and industrial revolution is to bring profound changes to the world.

China should grasp the opportunity to promote innovation-driven development in an effort to chase or stand at the world’s technological forefront, Li made the remarks Thursday while chairing a symposium on the new round of world technological and industrial revolution.

Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin announced on Saturday that he will donate 20 million yuan (US$2.9 million) to help landslide victims rebuild their homes in southwest China’s Sichuan Province.

According to Wang, the founder of Dalian Wanda Group, China’s largest real estate developer, he will donate the money through the Sichuan Charity Federation and that the remittance process began on Saturday afternoon.

As of Sunday morning, fifteen people have been confirmed dead in a landslide at Xinmo Village in Maoxian County early Saturday that buried around 120 people from 62 homes.

Rescuers work at the accident site after a landslide occurred in Xinmo Village of Maoxian County, Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China’s Sichuan Province, June 24, 2017. The landslide on Saturday morning smashed some 40 homes, where about 100 people are feared to be buried. (Xinhua/He Qinghai)

Fifteen people have been confirmed dead in a landslide in southwest China’s Sichuan Province early Saturday that buried more than 120 people from 62 homes.

Rescuers had retrieved 15 bodies from the debris by 10 p.m. Saturday, the rescue headquarters said.

The search and rescue operation was underway overnight and people have been sent to observe potential secondary disasters.

Rescuers were combing the area with life detectors and sniffer dogs but no new signs of life have been found.

“We won’t give up as long as there is a slim of chance,” said one rescuer.

Xu Zhiwen, executive deputy governor of the Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Aba that the landslide stuck, said the identities of 118 missing will be soon made public on the government’s website.

Xu also cleared up worries that some tourists might be among the buried as the village is in a tourist site.

All 142 tourists that entered the site Friday have been reached, said Xu.

The landslide from a high part of a mountain in Aba prefecture hit Xinmo Village in Maoxian County at about 6 a.m., blocking a 2-km section of river and burying 1,600 meters of road.

The provincial government has launched the highest level of disaster relief response and sent rescue teams to the site.

Currently, more than 3,000 workers with life-detection instruments are engaged in the search for survivors.

The provincial department of land and resources said the landslide was caused by heavy rain. An estimated 18 million cubic meters of earth mass fell some 1,600 meters, engulfing half of Xinmo Village. Geological experts at the site said the chance of survival for the people buried was really slim.

Only three people from one family were rescued five hours after the landslide struck. They were taken to Maoxian County People’s Hospital and none suffered life-threatening injuries. Another three-year-old child of the family remains buried.

Qiao Dashuai, 26-year-old husband of the family, recalled that he and his wife woke up to cries of their one-month-old son at about 5:30 a.m.

“Just after we changed the diaper for the baby, we heard a big bang outside and the light went out,” said Qiao. “We felt that something bad was happening and immediately rushed to the door, but the door was blocked by mud and rocks.”

The husband and wife mainly suffered bruises and their one-month-old son was being treated for pneumonia as he inhaled muddy water.

“I arrived at the site at 7:30 a.m. and found that the whole area was buried by the landslide,” said He Dajun, a worker with Maoxian County Power Company.

Another 110 people living nearby in another part of the village were being evacuated to a township school on Saturday night, fearing there might be rain and secondary disasters.

The village was relocated to the current site in 1976 as their previous location was prone to landslides and since then, villagers have been living in two groups in nearby locations.

The All China Lawyers Association (ACLA) on Saturday signed memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with five nations along the Belt and Road to strengthen legal cooperation.

The five countries are India, Laos, Mongolia, Poland and Thailand.

According to the agreement, lawyers associations of these countries will expand legal cooperation with China in fields such as infrastructure building, enterprise investment and financing, manufacturing and information technologies, so as to guarantee the smooth development of major cooperation projects.

Law firms of the five countries and China will establish affiliated agencies at each other’s side, and offer convenience to facilitate high-level exchanges and the implementation of major plans.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for comprehensively improving the country’s rocket launch and test capabilities.

Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), made the remarks during inspection of a space force unit based in Shanxi Province in north China on Thursday.

At about 9 a.m., Xi arrived at the unit’s history museum. The military base, first set up in 1960s, was an indigenously designed and built national defense testing ground.

Xi highly recognized the efforts of officers and staff of the base in the past 50 years, and said the Party and the people should show gratitude to their outstanding contributions in promoting the national defense power.

He also urged to care more about the life of the officers and soldiers at the base and help them solve problems.

The president then paid a visit to the base’s cultural and sports center where he met with the base’s officers, and asked them to make concerted efforts to develop new combat forces which can be integrated into the PLA’s joint operation system.

Xi also stressed deepening the military and civilian integration, and encouraged the aerospace forces to play an exemplary role in this area for all the armed forces.