Taiwan has rejected a suggestion by China that Taipei and Beijing form a joint search-and-rescue team in earthquake- hit Haiti, the Central News Agency (CNA) said Sunday. Chang Tai-fu, a counselor in Taiwan's embassy in Haiti, mentioned this while briefing the Taiwan rescue team, which arrived in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince Saturday night from the Dominican Republic, dpa reported. Chang said an official from the Chinese rescue team suggested through a Taiwanese businessman that the Taiwanese and Chinese rescue teams join. "I refused by saying that the two teams have different purposes. The Taiwan team works here with the aim of helping our diplomatic ally Haiti. The Chinese team's priority is searching for UN members," he said. Despite Chang's refusal, an official from the Chinese rescue team paid a courtesy call on the Taiwan rescue team on Sunday, CNA said. China, which does not have diplomatic ties with Haiti, has sent 142 peacekeeping police to Haiti as part of the UN peacekeeping force. China became one of the first countries to send rescue teams to the Caribbean nation, sending a rescue team on Thursday, two days after the magnitude 7 quake hit Haiti.
