Taiwan accepts Japan’s offer to help with earthquake after turning down Beijing

Taipei has said that the decision was technological, not political

While Taipei may have turned down Beijing’s offer of assistance following Tuesday night’s earthquake, a team of Japanese experts are currently searching for a family of five Chinese tourists still missing in the wreckage.

The 6.4 magnitude earthquake caused roads to crack and multiple tall buildings to collapse in eastern tourist city of Hualien, killing at least 12 people and injuring over 270 more.

On Wednesday, Beijing offered to send rescue workers to assist in the search for survivors. However, that offer was turned down by the Taiwanese government, which said that it had all of the resources that it needs. Taipei turned down similar offers from other countries as well.

But, the following afternoon, a team of seven Japanese earthquake rescue experts arrived in Hualien and got to work.

According to Taiwan News, Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang asserted that the reason for declining China’s offer of aid while accepting Japan’s was not political, but simply technological.

Huang said that the Japanese team was arriving with the newest kind of high-tech, heat-sensing equipment used to detect signs of life amid rubble. Equipment that Taiwan does not have.

That equipment is currently being used to search the Yun Men Tsui Ti building, a 12-story building which saw its first three stories collapse in the earthquake, causing it to lean dramatically to one side.

Most of those who lost their lives in the earthquake were staying at that building, including four tourists from mainland China.

Earlier today, the bodies of a couple — Canadian citizens originally from Hong Kong — were found in a collapsed hotel room in the building, bringing the death toll up to 12.

The family of five Chinese tourists — including parents, grandparents, and a 12-year-old son — are also believed to have been inside the building when it collapsed.

The fact that a team of Japanese rescuers, not Chinese, are searching for those tourists does not sit quite right with many Chinese netizens.

“The Taiwanese government is really childish. At a time like this, just being able to save one more person is important. Every victim is a living person, not a political plaything,” wrote one Weibo user.

“It’s going to be very awkward if that equipment says ‘Made in China,’” commented another.

[Images via CNA]