The US embassy yesterday issued a new warning of possible terrorist attacks on US citizens in the city of Guangzhou, four days after it retracted a warning of possible attacks at luxury hotels in China.
"The United States government has received credible information that a terrorist threat may exist against official US government facilities in Guangzhou," said a statement posted on the Web sites of the US embassy in Beijing and the US consulate in Guangzhou.
"This threat also may exist for places where Americans are known to congregate or visit, including clubs, restaurants, places of worship, schools or outdoor recreation events," it said.
"American citizens in south China are advised to be aware of their surroundings and remain alert to possible threats."
An official at the US Consulate General in Guangzhou, who declined to be named, said they have informed the Chinese authorities about the possible threat, and security has been stepped up at the consulate.
A man who answered the phone at Guangzhou police headquarters wouldn't give any information and referred questions to the city government press office, where calls weren't answered.
An employee of the Chinese Foreign Ministry press office in Beijing said he learned of the reported terror threat from the US government warning and didn't have any further information.
The warning was sent by e-mail to Americans registered with the Guangzhou Consulate and to those in nearby Hong Kong, said Susan Stevenson, a spokeswoman for the Hong Kong Consulate.
Stevenson declined to provide any information about the source of the threat or other details. She said the warning was circulated in Hong Kong because people in the city often travel to Guangzhou, about two hours away by train.
She added, "We are not advising people to cancel travel to China at this time."
The warning came after the US Embassy in Beijing issued a similar alert last Wednesday about a possible terror threat against luxury hotels in the Chinese capital.
The embassy retracted that warning a day later, saying Chinese authorities concluded the source of the information wasn't credible.
LONG FLIGHT: The jets would be flown by US pilots, with Taiwanese copilots in the two-seat F-16D variant to help familiarize them with the aircraft, the source said The US is expected to fly 10 Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Block 70/72 jets to Taiwan over the coming months to fulfill a long-awaited order of 66 aircraft, a defense official said yesterday. Word that the first batch of the jets would be delivered soon was welcome news to Taiwan, which has become concerned about delays in the delivery of US arms amid rising military tensions with China. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the initial tranche of the nation’s F-16s are rolling off assembly lines in the US and would be flown under their own power to Taiwan by way
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
RSS