Taiwanese reporters were harassed in San Francisco on Monday while trying to film the St Regis Hotel where Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to stay during the APEC summit.
The reporters were filming the building’s exterior when they were confronted by a man speaking Mandarin with a mainland Chinese accent.
They said he asked them not to film a portion of a driveway, which had a makeshift structure covered in white cloth over it.
Photo: CNA
Vehicles with covered license plates could be seen using the driveway.
The structure was “his property,” the man said, asking the reporters to delete any photographs or footage they had taken of it.
An altercation ensued.
“We booked the entire hotel. It is our property now. I have the right to ask you not to film,” the man said.
He also warned the journalists not to enter the lobby or it would be “embarrassing” for them.
Asked to identify himself, he declined to answer and said that his face “must not be shown.”
Some Chinese reporters staying at the Hyatt Regency diagonally across the street were also stopped from filming and left.
Security measures at the St Regis, which US media reported has been booked out by China for the APEC summit, have been bolstered, with second-floor window panes covered in frosted film and barricades set up around sidewalks adjacent to the hotel’s parking lot.
Xi was to be in San Francisco from yesterday to Friday to attend the summit, a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs schedule showed.
He is to meet US President Joe Biden today on the sidelines of the summit.
Security has also been stepped up near the Fairmont San Francisco, where Biden is booked to stay, with barricades being erected in the area.
Eight Chinese naval vessels and 24 military aircraft were detected crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait between 6am yesterday and 6am today, the Ministry of National Defense said this morning. The aircraft entered Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zones, the ministry said. The armed forces responded with mission aircraft, naval vessels and shore-based missile systems to closely monitor the situation, it added. Eight naval vessels, one official ship and 36 aircraft sorties were spotted in total, the ministry said.
INCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday. The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy Ouyang (歐陽漢源) said. The airline has recorded a steady rise in tourist and business travel to and from Taipei, and aims to provide more flexible travel arrangements for passengers, said Ouyang, who assumed the post in July last year. From now until Saturday next week, four additional flights would depart from Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, Friday
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday reported the return of large-scale Chinese air force activities after their unexplained absence for more than two weeks, which had prompted speculation regarding Beijing’s motives. China usually sends fighter jets, drones and other military aircraft around the nation on a daily basis. Interruptions to such routine are generally caused by bad weather. The Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 26 Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait over the previous 24 hours. It last reported that many aircraft on Feb. 25, when it spotted 30 aircraft, saying Beijing was carrying out another “joint combat
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) today said that if South Korea does not reply appropriately to its request to correct Taiwan’s name on its e-Arrival card system before March 31, it would take corresponding measures to alter how South Korea is labeled on the online Taiwan Arrival Card system. South Korea’s e-Arrival card system lists Taiwan as “China (Taiwan)” in the “point of departure” and “next destination” fields. The ministry said that it changed the nationality for South Koreans on Taiwan’s Alien Resident Certificates from “Korea” to “South Korea” on March 1, in a gesture of goodwill and based on the
RSS