As images of destroyed buildings in earthquake-hit Myanmar flashed across her television screen in Taiwan, Yang Bi-ying could only weep for her family there.
Yang, 76, has lived in Taiwan for more than half her life and has a daughter-in-law in the central Myanmar city of Mandalay, which was devastated by Friday’s massive earthquake.
At least 1,700 people have been killed in Myanmar and neighboring Thailand, and hopes of finding more survivors are fading fast.
Photo courtesy of the Burmese student group in Taiwan
Yang said her daughter-in-law was safe and other relatives in Yangon were unaffected by the magnitude 7.7 earthquake and its aftershocks.
“I could only cry. There was nothing else, just tears,” said the grandmother at an eatery in a Sino-Burmese neighbourhood near Taipei.
“Every family has been worried, especially for those buried under the rubble. What could be done? Nothing. It’s all in the hands of fate,” she said.
Three days after the quake struck, many in Taiwan’s Sino-Burmese community still feared for their loved ones.
“Several buildings near my family’s home collapsed, many people died,” said eatery owner Yeh Mei-chin, 48, showing a video of the damage on her smartphone.
It took hours before Yeh was able to reach her mother and sisters in Mandalay on Friday. They were safe, but too scared to go home.
“I asked them where they would sleep that night, and they said they were still looking for a place, but hadn’t found one yet,” Yeh said.
People in Taiwan have been using social media platforms, including Line and WeChat, to contact family in Myanmar and monitor the situation, but Internet connection has been intermittent.
“On a lucky day, we may be able to get through a few times,” Myanmar Overseas Chinese Association Lee Pei, 66, said. “Usually, we can only leave messages as voice calls rarely go through. If we do manage to connect, the signal deteriorates after a few words.”
The Myanmar community in Taiwan dates back to the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949.
Many members of former president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) defeated Nationalist forces fled across the border to Myanmar and later went to Taiwan. Over the decades, students and people fleeing anti-Chinese sentiment as well as economic and political turmoil in Myanmar have followed.
Pei estimated Taiwan’s Sino-Burmese population at 160,000 and said 10 percent were originally from Mandalay.
University student Aung Kyaw Zaw has been following developments on Facebook where he has seen reports that in Sagaing, near the quake’s epicenter, there was a “stench ... like the smell of decaying bodies.”
The 24-year-old said he had exchanged messages with some friends in quake-hit areas, but “some of them still haven’t come online.”
There were also concerns that donations sent to Myanmar would not reach the people who need it.
“The junta only cares about fighting wars or other things, but they don’t really do much to help the people,” university student Yi Chint, 24, said. “I think very little of it would actually go to the people.”
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and