Taiwan offers assistance in wake of deadly blasts in China

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/08/13
By: S.L. Chang and Lillian Lin

Taipei, Aug. 13 (CNA) Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) and Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) have expressed concern and offered help to Chinese authorities in the wake of a series of deadly explosions that rocked the port city of Tianjin on Wednesday night, MAC Deputy Minister Wu Mei-hung said Thursday.

He said the Ministry of Economic Affairs has also contacted the Taiwanese businessmen’s association in Tianjin to learn more about the situation there.

According to international media reports, a shipment of explosives detonated Wednesday in a warehouse in Tianjin, a major Chinese port city, killing at least 44 people and injuring more than 500.

Fan Liqing, a spokesperson for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office under its State Council, said Thursday that only one Taiwanese was known to have been injured in the blast. The worker, who is employed at a Taiwanese-invested paper manufacturing plant, suffered minor cuts when the plant’s dormitory windows were shattered by the explosions, Fan said.     [FULL  STORY]