US governor thanks Chinese help

Staff members load medical supplies onto the chartered plane from the U.S. at Shenzhen International Airport on April 1. Courtesy of Shenzhen International Airport

Charlie Baker, governor of Massachusetts in the U.S., on his twitter account recently extended his thanks to partners including Tencent for their help to transport over 1 million N95 masks from Shenzhen to Boston.

Baker said that these masks meant a lot to frontline medical workers, as he was receiving them at the airport.

In March, a total of 3 million N95 masks booked by Massachusetts were detained by the U.S. state government. It was then that Baker realized it would be impossible to import face masks through traditional channels.

Baker finally decided to seek help from Jonathan Kraft, president of New England Patriots, whose team owns a Boeing 767 plane. Baker was hoping to use the plane to transport face masks from China to Massachusetts.

The chairman of the board at Massachusetts General Hospital contacted his friend, Martin Lau, president of Tencent, hoping Lau could help to send masks to New York.

After receiving the aid request from Massachusetts, the Consulate General of China in New York immediately arranged visas for the plane’s crew members.

At the same time, a team from Tencent used eight trucks to transport 115 cubic meters in volume of anti-epidemic materials to Shenzhen International Airport.

The Shenzhen airport also opened a green channel to ensure the quick delivery and loading of the cargo onto the airplane from America, according to the staff at the airport.

It was reported that it was less than three hours between the plane’s arrival and departure.

New England Patriots also said on its twitter account that they want to give “a huge thank you to our friends at Tencent. Without their vital logistical knowledge and help warehousing and protecting these critical supplies, this would not have been possible.”