Mexico jet lands in China to fly nationals home

Swine Flu, Swine Flu Spread in china, who had not been quarantined but who were stuck in China after Beijing suspended flights to Mexico as a swine flu precaution
Swine Flu– A jet from Mexico arrived in China on Tuesday on a mission that includes stops in four Chinese cities to bring home dozens of Mexicans quarantined under strict swine flu measures.
The jet would also fly home Mexicans who had not been quarantined but who were stuck in China after Beijing suspended flights to Mexico as a swine flu precaution.
Some of the quarantined Mexicans had travelled to China on board the same flight that carried an infected Mexican man -- Asia's first confirmed case of swine flu -- who is now in a Hong Kong hospital.
The trip, which takes in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou in the south, and Hong Kong, comes after China at the weekend suspended flights to and from Mexico, the epicentre of the outbreak, leaving tourists at both ends stranded.
Amid frosty ties with Mexico over Beijing's handling of its nationals, a chartered AeroMexico flight landed first in Shanghai where it was to collect 43 Mexicans quarantined there.
At a Shanghai hotel, armed police supervised masked medical staff in protective clothing transferring the Mexicans into about 30 ambulances taking them to the airport, said Eastday.com, a website run by the city government.
It arrived in Beijing later in the afternoon and Mexicans quarantined in the capital were taken to the airport, one of them told AFP by phone.
The AeroMexico flight will also pick up 12 people in Hong Kong, according to the Hong Kong government, with 152 people due to go home in total, according to a Mexican diplomatic source in Beijing.
But Hong Kong's only confirmed case of swine flu, which precipitated China's suspension of flights, would not be allowed to join the other Mexicans going home, the territory's under-secretary for food and health Gabriel Leung said.
The jet would also fly home Mexicans who had not been quarantined but who were stuck in China after Beijing suspended flights to Mexico as a swine flu precaution.
Mexican diplomats have complained that 70 of their nationals were put in isolation in mainland China despite showing no signs of the (A)H1N1 virus.
Some of the quarantined Mexicans had travelled to China on board the same flight that carried an infected Mexican man -- Asia's first confirmed case of swine flu -- who is now in a Hong Kong hospital.
The illness, which appears to have originated in Mexico, has spread across more than 20 countries and killed 26 in all.
In the face of criticism of its handling of the affair, China has denied targeting Mexicans with its flu measures, saying they were "not directed at Mexican citizens and are not discriminatory."
But Mexican Pedro Diaz said as he waited at Mexico's embassy to secure a seat on the flight that a couple of hotels had refused to take him in after seeing his passport. The 28-year-old had been stuck in Beijing by the flight suspensions.
China, meanwhile, also sent a plane to Mexico to fetch 200 of its citizens stranded by the flu crisis there, China Southern Airlines said in a statement, after the two countries agreed to a repatriation deal.
Amid further discontent with how China was dealing with international visitors from countries with confirmed flu cases, Canada has asked Beijing to explain the quarantine at the weekend of 22 students.
One of the students, Martin Leroy Deslauriers, told AFP by phone from the hotel that none of the students had any symptoms and they believed they were singled out by authorities in the city of Changchun for being Canadian.
Canada has one of the highest numbers of cases of the virus.
"I am sure they have their reasons but I think its mostly symbolic because we are Canadian and some people had the flu in Canada," said Deslauriers, 26, from Montreal.
None of the hotel staff wore masks and teachers from their local university were allowed to come and go freely to teach classes at the hotel, he said.
Separately, at least four US citizens are now or have been quarantined in China, a US embassy official told AFP.