The Ministry of Foreign Affairs raised the nation’s travel alert for Mexico to “red” as the number of suspected swine flu patients in the North American country kept rising yesterday.
A red alert means people should avoid all non-essential travel to Mexico until the crisis has subsided.
A yellow alert was issued for Canada and the US, with people traveling to these countries advised to exercise caution.
Taiwan’s representative office in Mexico City will continue to operate as usual, ministry spokesman Henry Chen (陳銘政) said.
Figures released by the Tourism Bureau showed that 78 Taiwanese tourists on a cruise tour were still on their way to Mexico yesterday.
Chen said three or four Taiwanese high school exchange students at King’s-Edgehill private high school in Windsor, Nova Scotia, Canada, were among a group of 17 people who were quarantined amid concern that they might have contracted the H1N1 swine flu virus.
None of the 17 people was seriously ill, he added.
The ministry said 40 students from Taiwan were participating in an exchange program at the school.
The King’s-Edgehill School Web site said yesterday that four of its students had been confirmed to have contracted swine flu, and that some students had been released from quarantine.
At press time, the ministry remained unable to determine if the Taiwanese students were among the ones released from quarantine.
Liu Ching-jen (劉慶仁), director of the Ministry of Education’s Bureau of International Cultural and Educational Relations, said there were no Taiwanese students in Mexico.
“We have nonetheless urged officials at our representative offices in Los Angeles and Houston to alert Taiwanese students in the two cities because of their proximity to Mexico,” Liu said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SHELLEY SHAN AND FLORA WANG
THREATS: Naval facilities have been built in Shanghai and Zhejiang, while airbases have been expanded in Xiamen, Fuzhou and Zhangpu, across the Strait from Taiwan The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is building large-scale military infrastructure at five sites along the eastern coast of China, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said in a recent report. The latest issue of the council’s Mainland China Situation Quarterly said satellite photos showed military infrastructure such as air force and naval bases being constructed along the eastern coast of China. That means the CCP might be preparing for potential conflict in Taiwan, it said, adding that there are five such construction sites from north to south. A naval base has been built in Shanghai’s Pudong New Area, with underground oil storage tanks, railway
MILESTONE: The foreign minister called the signing ‘a major step forward in US-Taiwan relations,’ while the Presidential Office said it was a symbol of the nations’ shared values US President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed into law the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, which requires the US Department of State to regularly review and update guidelines governing official US interactions with Taiwan. The new law is an amendment to the Taiwan Assurance Act of 2020 focused on reviewing guidelines on US interactions with Taiwan. Previously, the state department was required to conduct a one-time review of its guidance governing relations with Taiwan, but under the new bill, the agency must conduct a review “not less than every five years.” It must then submit an updated report based on its findings “not later
A trial run of the north concourse of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s new Terminal 3 is to commence today, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday. The eight additional boarding gates would allow for more aircraft parking spaces that are expected to boost the airport’s capacity by 5.8 million passengers annually, Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Kuo-shian (林國顯) said. The concourse, designed by a team led by British architect Richard Rogers, provides a refreshing space, Lin said, adding that travelers would enjoy the tall and transparent design that allows sunshine to stream into the concourse through glass curtain walls. The
The Presidential Office today thanked the US for enacting the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, which requires the US Department of State to regularly review and update guidelines governing official US interactions with Taiwan. The new law, signed by US President Donald Trump yesterday, is an amendment to the Taiwan Assurance Act of 2020 focused on reviewing guidelines on US interactions with Taiwan. Previously, the department was required to conduct a one-time review of its guidance governing relations with Taiwan, but under the new bill, the agency must conduct such a review "not less than every five years." It must then submit an updated
RSS