Rubio calls China's blocking of Taiwanese evacuations from Wuhan 'outrageous'

Senator Marco Rubio says China's refusal to allow Taiwan to evacuate citizens from Wuhan 'outrageous'

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Senator Marco Rubio.  Senator Marco Rubio.  (AP photo)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) on Thursday (Jan. 30) on Twitter said that China's refusal to allow Taiwan to evacuate its citizens from Wuhan, the heart of the China coronavirus outbreak, is "outrageous."

On Tuesday (Jan. 28), Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) announced that China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) refused requests to allow Taiwanese to evacuate from Wuhan via charter flights. TAO Spokesman Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光) issued a news release on Tuesday afternoon, stating that China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) received a letter from the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) at 6 p.m. on Monday (Jan. 29).

The news release stated that reports of negotiations for the return of Taiwanese in the nation's media did not reflect the real situation. Ma insisted that Taiwanese in Hubei Province, where Wuhan is located, have been well cared for.

On Thursday, Rubio retweeted the Taiwan News report about the denied request, and wrote that China's refusal to allow Taiwan to evacuate its citizens due to the "growing coronavirus pandemic is outrageous." In response, Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs thanked the senator that same day for "supporting Taiwan and recognizing that politics mustn't factor in the spread of the coronavirus and jeopardize health for all."