Some Taiwanese businesspeople living in China's Sichuan Province had yet to be reached yesterday following a 7.9 magnitude quake which hit the province.
A total of 82 Taiwanese tourists were still missing at press time last night.
The Travel Agent Association (TAA) told a press conference last night that it was still trying to contact 82 Taiwanese tourists whom it had not been able to reach by telephone since the earthquake struck.
These tourists were on a package tour to Jiuzhaigou (九寨溝, one of the famous tourist attractions in Sichuan.
Earlier, it had said that 14 tourists were traveling around Maoshien, a city near the epicenter in Wenchuan, while another 94 tourists were near Chiangyo and Pingwu, two cities east of Wenchuan.
The number did not include those who traveled on their own.
The TAA said at least 2,360 Taiwanese tourists had been traveling in Sichuan when the earthquake occurred.
Many of the tourists could not be contacted because of the breakdown of communication and transportation networks in the province.
TAA chairman Yao Ta-kuang (姚大光 said the association has dispatched three representatives to Sichuan and would form an emergency taskforce to help arrange return trips for the tour groups.
Yao also said air traffic in Jiuzhaigou was blocked and that the association could dispatch humanitarian charter flights to the airport in Jiuzhaigou once it is able to help bring the tourists back.
There were 2,897 Taiwanese tourists still in Sichuan, according to a press release issued by the TAA yesterday morning.
Meanwhile, the Mainland Council Affairs (MAC) said at a separate press conference yesterday afternoon that the only Taiwanese casualty so far was Chu Shao-wei (朱紹維, a four-year-old boy who died when a house in Mianzhu City was flattened.
MAC Chairman Chen Ming-tong (陳明通 said both of the boy's parents were in Taiwan and that the government was helping the father return to Mianzhu as soon as possible.
Another four year-old Taiwanese girl, Yu Chia-rong (余佳蓉, is missing. Her father, Yu Da-jun (余大軍, has sought the help of the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) to establish contact with her and her parents-in-law.
So far, the MAC and SEF do not have a figure on Taiwanese students in China.
Meanwhile, citing preliminary information acquired by the semi-official Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) from Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan, Yeh Ming-shui (葉明水, deputy secretary-general of TAITRA, yesterday said some Taiwan businesspeople, particularly those near Wenchuan, the epicenter of the tremor located some 100km from Chengdu, remained unreachable.
TAITRA is the only agency affiliated with the government which has personnel stationed in Chengdu.
Yeh said there are more than 600 Taiwanese companies in Sichuan, including offices and stores of prominent conglomerates, such as the Sogo Pacific Department Store and Giant bicycles.
A representative of the Taiwanese businessmen's association in Chengdu said yesterday that most members of the association had been accounted for and were safe and sound.
Speaking by telephone with the Central News Agency, a representative of the association surnamed Lee said that it began contacting members at midnight last night after the telephone service resumed.
Lee said most members of the association had been contacted by 11am yesterday, with none of them reporting any injuries. Lee said that the association's 6th floor office in Chengdu suffered only minor damage in the earthquake and said that many members of the association had begun to make preparations to assist in relief efforts.
Citing the uncertain circumstances following the 7.8 magnitude earthquake, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) advised Taiwanese residents yesterday against visiting the quake-affected areas.
"We are not issuing a travel warning for Sichuan Province, but we urge travel agencies and travelers to understand the actual situation before making any plans to go there," said Yu Fang-lai (游方來, deputy minister of the MOTC. "The public should have the sense and judgment to make their own decision."
Two US House of Representatives committees yesterday condemned China’s attempt to orchestrate a crash involving Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim’s (蕭美琴) car when she visited the Czech Republic last year as vice president-elect. Czech local media in March last year reported that a Chinese diplomat had run a red light while following Hsiao’s car from the airport, and Czech intelligence last week told local media that Chinese diplomats and agents had also planned to stage a demonstrative car collision. Hsiao on Saturday shared a Reuters news report on the incident through her account on social media platform X and wrote: “I
SHIFT PRIORITIES: The US should first help Taiwan respond to actions China is already taking, instead of focusing too heavily on deterring a large-scale invasion, an expert said US Air Force leaders on Thursday voiced concerns about the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) missile capabilities and its development of a “kill web,” and said that the US Department of Defense’s budget request for next year prioritizes bolstering defenses in the Indo-Pacific region due to the increasing threat posed by China. US experts said that a full-scale Chinese invasion of Taiwan is risky and unlikely, with Beijing more likely to pursue coercive tactics such as political warfare or blockades to achieve its goals. Senior air force and US Space Force leaders, including US Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink and
‘BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS’: The US military’s aim is to continue to make any potential Chinese invasion more difficult than it already is, US General Ronald Clark said The likelihood of China invading Taiwan without contest is “very, very small” because the Taiwan Strait is under constant surveillance by multiple countries, a US general has said. General Ronald Clark, commanding officer of US Army Pacific (USARPAC), the US Army’s largest service component command, made the remarks during a dialogue hosted on Friday by Washington-based think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Asked by the event host what the Chinese military has learned from its US counterpart over the years, Clark said that the first lesson is that the skill and will of US service members are “unmatched.” The second
Czech officials have confirmed that Chinese agents surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March 2024 and planned a collision with her car as part of an “unprecedented” provocation by Beijing in Europe. Czech Military Intelligence learned that their Chinese counterparts attempted to create conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, which “did not go beyond the preparation stage,” agency director Petr Bartovsky told Czech Radio in a report yesterday. In addition, a Chinese diplomat ran a red light to maintain surveillance of the Taiwanese
RSS