The first international search-and-rescue team from Japan has arrived to help with efforts in Hualien after a magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck on Tuesday night, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Andrew Lee (李憲章) said yesterday.
“The government of Japan has answered our requests for aid and has sent a team of seven experts and two advanced scanners,” Lee said.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wrote a personal letter to President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) expressing the nation’s condolences over the earthquake and said that the Japanese team has been dispatched to help in the continuing search-and-rescue operation.
Screen grab from the Prime Minister of Japan ’s Facebook account
Officials from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Japan International Cooperation Agency, the Tokyo Fire Department, the Tokyo Police Department and the Japan Coast Guard’s Tokyo branch are also coming to Taiwan, Lee said, adding that two officials from the Taiwan-Japan Relations Association and the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association would accompany the group to facilitate communications.
The search-and-rescue team arrived at Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) at 12:30pm and was flown directly to Hualien.
Lee thanked to the Japanese government on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for dispatching a professional team and its high-tech equipment in such a short time.
Screen grab from the Prime Minister of Japan ’s Facebook account
Japanese Minster of Foreign Affairs Taro Kono also telephoned Minster of Foreign Affairs David Lee (李大維) to express his concern and condolences.
As of 10am yesterday, representatives from 25 countries, including diplomatic allies the Holy See, Belize, Haiti, Nicaragua, Saint Lucia, the Dominican Republic and Guatemala, arrived in Taiwan to express their support and condolences.
Tsai thanked world leaders for their concern and condolences on her official social media sites.
Photo: AP
“Taiwan is grateful to the many offers of assistance & support coming from around the world. Although relief efforts in Hualien are sufficient, your warmth & kindness have been felt by people of Taiwan,” she wrote on Twitter.
Tsai also responded to Abe’s Facebook account, which offered condolences and showed a picture of his calligraphy.
“A true friend during such difficult times... Our friendship and values will be manifested with humanitarian aid,” Tsai tweeted in Japanese.
Netizens alleged that the original phrasing of Abe’s letter had been changed due to Chinese pressure.
The letter, posted on the Japanese Prime Minister Residence’s account, initially addressed Tsai as, “President,” but the title was dropped less than two hours later.
Content on site are considered official governmental documents.
Netizens praised Japan for “having the guts” to address Tsai by her official title, a source said.
Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association Department of General Affairs Director Michi Kakizawa said he was not sure why the letter was changed, adding that the association delivered the letter from “Prime Minister Abe to President Tsai.”
Theaters and institutions in Taiwan have received 28 threatening e-mails, including bomb threats, since a documentary critical of China began being screened across the nation last month, the National Security Bureau said yesterday. The actions are part of China’s attempts to undermine Taiwan’s sovereignty, it said. State Organs (國有器官) documents allegations that Chinese government officials engage in organ harvesting and other illegal activities. From last month to Friday last week, 28 incidents have been reported of theaters or institutions receiving threats, including bomb and shooting threats, if they did not stop showing the documentary, the bureau said. Although the threats were not carried out,
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday condemned Chinese and Russian authorities for escalating regional tensions, citing Chinese warplanes crossing the Taiwan Strait’s median line and joint China-Russia military activities breaching South Korea’s air defense identification zone (KADIZ) over the past two days. A total of 30 Chinese warplanes crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait on Thursday and Friday, entering Taiwan’s northern and southwestern airspace in coordination with 15 naval vessels and three high-altitude balloons, the MAC said in a statement. The Chinese military also carried out another “joint combat readiness patrol” targeting Taiwan on Thursday evening, the MAC said. On
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday confirmed that Chinese students visiting Taiwan at the invitation of the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation were almost all affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). During yesterday’s meeting convened by the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) asked whether the visit was a way to spread China’s so-called “united front” rhetoric, to which MAC Deputy Ministry Shen You-chung (沈有忠) responded with the CCP comment. The MAC noticed that the Chinese individuals visiting Taiwan, including those in sports, education, or religion, have had increasingly impressive backgrounds, demonstrating that the
MILITARY EXERCISES: China is expected to conduct more drills in the region after President William Lai’s office announced he would stopover in Hawaii and Guam China is likely to launch military drills in the coming days near Taiwan, using President William Lai’s (賴清德) upcoming trip to the Pacific and scheduled US transit as a pretext, regional security officials said. Lai is to begin a visit to Taipei’s three diplomatic allies in the Pacific on Saturday, and sources told Reuters he was planning stops in Hawaii and the US territory of Guam in a sensitive trip shortly after the US presidential election. Lai’s office has yet to confirm details of what are officially “stop-overs” in the US, but is expected to do so shortly before he departs, sources
RSS