An Afghan plane bound for Xinjiang was sent back to Afghanistan after a bomb threat, Chinese media said yesterday, but the airline rebutted the report.
Kam Air deputy chief Feda Mohammad Fedawi said the plane, carrying 160 passengers, left Kabul and was crossing Kyrgyzstan on its way to the Xinjiang capital of Urumqi when it was told to turn back on Sunday.
Xinhua news agency said there had been a bomb threat and Urumqi airport authorities were told not to let the plane land.
Kyrgyz authorities told the crew that Chinese authorities would not allow them into their airspace, Fedawi said.
The plane could not return to the Afghan capital because of windy weather and was diverted to the southern city of Kandahar, he said, adding that there had not been a bomb threat.
Fedawi said the plane’s passengers and crew were fine and the plane was expected to return to Kabul yesterday.
He said the plane had been inspected by Afghan officers and a foreign security company before departure in a security check he described as unusually thorough.
A press officer for NATO forces in Afghanistan, which control Kandahar airport, said the alliance had received no report of a plane forced to land there.
A Xinjiang regional government duty officer who declined to be named said he had no information about the incident. Calls to the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau rang unanswered. Calls to the Urumqi airport information desk also rang unanswered.
Meanwhile, police in Kyrgyzstan yesterday arrested two leading Uighur activists after an unauthorized protest against Chinese oppression of Uighurs in Xinjiang.
More than 1,000 people, waving banners with slogans such as “Free Uighurstan,” turned out for the protest in the center of Bishkek before police dispersed the crowd, a reporter witnessed.
Uighur community leader Dilmurat Akbarov and his deputy Zhamaldin Nasiyrov were detained in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek for holding an “unsanctioned” meeting, the former Soviet state’s human rights ombudsman Tursunbek Akun said.
“In Bishkek after the carrying out of an unsanctioned demonstration in support of Uighurs in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region the heads of the Uighur diaspora community ... were detained,” he said.
Kyrgyzstan, an impoverished Central Asian state bordering China, is home to a sizeable population of Uighurs.
The unrest in Xinjiang last month and China’s crackdown sparked unprecedented protests among Uighurs in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
CARROT AND STICK: While unrelenting in its military threats, China attracted nearly 40,000 Taiwanese to over 400 business events last year Nearly 40,000 Taiwanese last year joined industry events in China, such as conferences and trade fairs, supported by the Chinese government, a study showed yesterday, as Beijing ramps up a charm offensive toward Taipei alongside military pressure. China has long taken a carrot-and-stick approach to Taiwan, threatening it with the prospect of military action while reaching out to those it believes are amenable to Beijing’s point of view. Taiwanese security officials are wary of what they see as Beijing’s influence campaigns to sway public opinion after Taipei and Beijing gradually resumed travel links halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the scale of
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
Pope Francis is be laid to rest on Saturday after lying in state for three days in St Peter’s Basilica, where the faithful are expected to flock to pay their respects to history’s first Latin American pontiff. The cardinals met yesterday in the Vatican’s synod hall to chart the next steps before a conclave begins to choose Francis’ successor, as condolences poured in from around the world. According to current norms, the conclave must begin between May 5 and 10. The cardinals set the funeral for Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square, to be celebrated by the dean of the College
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
RSS