China urged Japan on Thursday to release "timely and precise" information on its unfolding nuclear crisis as uncertainty over the situation fuelled panic buying of salt by Chinese fearing radiation.
"We hope the Japanese side will release information, as well as its evaluation and prediction of the situation, to the public in a timely and precise manner," foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters.
Jiang had been asked for comment on the deepening peril in Japan, where last Friday's 9.0 earthquake and ensuing tsunami have left a nuclear power plant on its east coast leaking radiation and in danger of meltdown.
Jiang did not specifically criticise Japan's level of openness.
But China, the United States and France have taken steps to remove their citizens from Japan -- despite's Tokyo's assurances that the situation did not pose a major health threat outside an evacuation zone near the plant.
China has moved thousands of its citizens in Japan to Tokyo for evacuation from the country, and two Chinese airlines have added flights to accommodate extra demand.
China has also stepped up radiation monitoring of passengers and goods from neighbouring Japan, ordered safety inspections of its own nuclear facilities and temporarily suspended approval for new nuclear projects.
On Thursday, Beijing was forced to issue a public call for calm at home after shoppers flooded supermarkets to buy salt in the belief that the iodine it contains can ward off the effects of radioactivity.
The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country's top economic planner, issued a notice assuring the public that China had ample salt stocks.
It urged shoppers to "consume rationally, buy reasonably, and don't believe or spread rumours".
The government has repeatedly said that China itself faces no imminent threat of radiation contamination from the Fukushima nuclear plant, 1,000 kilometres (621 miles) east of the nearest part of northeastern China.
Iodine, which is found in most salt in China as part of a national policy to prevent iodine deficiency disorders, helps to protect a person's thyroid and glandular system from radiation damage if exposed.
However, large amounts of normal table salt would need to be ingested to have any impact.
"Salt sold out early this morning," an employee at a branch of French supermarket chain Carrefour in Shanghai told AFP, declining to give her name.
She added that many customers reported salt prices at other shops in the city had risen as much as six-fold.
The rush for salt was so acute that dozens of individual and corporate merchants on China's largest retail website, Taobao, were offering free packs if customers bought their goods.
The NDRC ordered authorities to immediately check market prices and prevent hoarding, price-gouging, and the spreading of rumours "to safeguard market supply and price stability of daily necessities and maintain market order".
The panic buying sent the share prices of salt producers soaring on Chinese stock markets Thursday.
Border inspection authorities in Shanghai -- the world's biggest container port -- said Wednesday they were checking all incoming travellers, luggage and imports of food and other goods from Japan entering the city's airport or port.
Air passengers arriving in Beijing were being monitored for radiation, but officials said this was routine even before Japan's disasters.
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