Mexicans form Facebook group defending China against discrimination charges

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MEXICO CITY, May 13 (Xinhua) -- A group of Mexicans living in China have created a group on social networking website Facebook to support the Chinese government in taking measures and quarantining Mexicans in China, in reaction to the outbreak of A/H1N1 flu here.

The group clarified that Mexicans are being taken good care of in China and have not suffered discrimination or xenophobia.

"The damaging view that has been given to the phenomenon in China has slowly been changing in the media, or at least there is more room for debate," said Ana Fernanda Hierro, the group's founder, who has lived in Beijing since 2007.

She added that since a national emergency was declared in Mexico in response to the flu on April 23, she has only received support from people in China.

Other group members have written that they have been treated well during their stay in China, and that the 2002-2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) makes the measures taken understandable.

According to Mexican government data, the new influenza A/H1N1 flu, which causes headaches, high temperature, muscular pain and breathing difficulties, has killed 60 people and infected 2,446 in Mexico, giving a fatality rate of around 2.5 percent.