Mexico to start China flu airlift

A Mexican plane has gone to China to collect dozens of Mexicans who have been quarantined because of fears they were infected with swine flu.

一架墨西哥飞机飞抵中国，将被中国政府隔离的几十个墨西哥人运回国。

Chinese authorities are taking no risks with the Mexicans they have quarantined

About 70 Mexicans were confined despite just one confirmed case of the virus.

The issue sparked a diplomatic row, with Mexico accusing China of targeting its citizens unfairly, and Beijing saying it was a "purely¹ medical" issue.

Some 26 people have died of the virus in Mexico and more than 1,000 cases have been reported in 20 countries.

But just one fatality²（不幸，灾祸） has been recorded outside of Mexico - a two-year-old Mexican boy who died in the US while on a visit.

The UN's World Health Organization says there has been no evidence of widespread transmission between humans outside North America and Mexico.

Second row brewing³（酿造，混合）

The spat⁴ between Mexico and China escalated⁵（扩大，升高，增强） in the days after a 25-year-old man who had flown from Mexico to Shanghai and Hong Kong was diagnosed with swine flu - or H1N1.

China decided⁶ to track down everyone on his flight and put them into quarantine. It also isolated⁷ everyone in the traveller's hotel in Hong Kong.

Mexican officials say more than 70 of their citizens in China have been confined（被限制的）. It is not yet clear whether or not these people had any contact with the infected traveller.

About 50 are being held in Shanghai in two five-star hotels, with 10 in Beijing and several more in the city of Wenzhou.

Mexico has issued strongly-worded statements over the past few days condemning⁸ Beijing's reaction to the problem and a government-chartered plane left for China earlier to pick up the isolated Mexicans.

Chinese Foreign Ministry⁹ spokesman Ma Zhaoxu denied there was any discrimination, saying: "The measures concerned are not targeted at Mexican citizens. This is purely a medical quarantine issue."

The Beijing government has sent a plane to Mexico to pick up 200 Chinese nationals stranded¹⁰（搁浅的） in Mexico City.

Meanwhile, another diplomatic row could be brewing after Canada asked China to explain why a group of at least 20 Canadian students had been quarantined in the north-eastern town of Changchun.

Canada said none of the students had shown any flu symptoms.