Beijing today offered assistance to Taiwan after an earthquake shook the waters east of the island, leaving at least four dead and 57 injured.
The spokeswoman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, China’s executive, Zhu Fenglian, expressed “deep concern” about the earthquake, while offering condolences and support to those affected, according to the news agency. Chinese official Xinhua.
Zhu reiterated China’s commitment to humanitarian assistance and its availability to closely monitor the situation, aiming to “provide the necessary assistance”.
These expressions of support are common in the wake of natural disasters, despite tense relations between the two sides of the Formosa Strait.
Taiwanese leader Tsai Ing-wen offered her condolences and assistance to Beijing following the 2023 earthquake in China’s Gansu province, which claimed the lives of 151 people.
Former Taiwanese leader Ma Ying-jeou (2008-2016), who is visiting mainland China, today expressed his wish that all those affected “are safe and sound”.
Responsible for bringing the Chinese mainland and Taiwan closer together since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, the former leader of the Kuomintang party (currently in opposition) is in the People’s Republic of China in the company of a group of students, with whom he will tour the provinces of Guangdong (southeast) and Shaanxi (center) and the capital, Beijing, to participate in cultural, educational and historical activities and meet with the Chinese President, Xi Jinping.
The epicenter of the earthquake, which occurred at around 09:00 (01:00 in Lisbon), was located in the sea 25 kilometers southeast of Hualien (east), at a depth of 15.5 kilometers, according to the Central Meteorological Agency from Taiwan.
All tsunami warnings issued in Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center have now been withdrawn.
The director of the Taiwan Seismological Center, Wu Chien-fu, said at a press conference that this was the biggest earthquake to hit Taiwan in the last 25 years, since the 7.6 magnitude earthquake that killed 2,416 people on September 21, 1999.
The magnitude of the earthquake was 7.2, according to the Taiwan Central Meteorological Agency, and 7.4 according to the US Geological Survey.
JPI // VQ
