The coast guard yesterday confronted a Chinese fishing boat carrying 173 smuggled birds when it attempted to enter Kinmen, as health experts warned of the potential for a devastating outbreak of avian flu in Taiwan.
The birds were immediately destroyed.
The Coast Guard Administration said in a press statement that at 4:30am yesterday, the coast guard discovered a Chinese fishing boat attempting to come ashore at Hsiaokinmen.
20 boxes
As a coast guard vessel approached the boat, two Chinese fishermen threw 20 boxes of birds toward the shore and fled.
The coast guard was unable to intercept the boat, but 173 live birds were found in the boxes. They included Japanese white-eyes, redthroats and daurian redstarts.
Upon discovering the birds, the coast guard called in epidemic prevention experts. The coast guard said that the birds were judged to be potential carriers of avian flu and were destroyed.
The site of the attempted landing was also disinfected.
The birds would have ended up in Taiwanese bird markets if it had not seized the shipment, the coast guard said.
The coast guard warned the public against helping smugglers bring birds into the country, and not to buy birds if their origin was unclear.
Flu risk
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) has expressed concern over smuggling from China through the "small three links" -- direct trade and transport between Kinmen, Matsu and China -- saying that Taiwanese and Chinese fishermen might spark an outbreak of avian flu or other diseases in Taiwan by circumventing health and sanitary controls.
The president therefore ordered the government to conduct strict surveillance and interception operations in the area, focusing on illegally imported animals and animal products.
The Coast Guard Administration has launched a crackdown on Chinese vessels entering waters off the outlying islands of Kinmen, Matsu and Penghu to counter smuggling.
Two US House of Representatives committees yesterday condemned China’s attempt to orchestrate a crash involving Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim’s (蕭美琴) car when she visited the Czech Republic last year as vice president-elect. Czech local media in March last year reported that a Chinese diplomat had run a red light while following Hsiao’s car from the airport, and Czech intelligence last week told local media that Chinese diplomats and agents had also planned to stage a demonstrative car collision. Hsiao on Saturday shared a Reuters news report on the incident through her account on social media platform X and wrote: “I
SHIFT PRIORITIES: The US should first help Taiwan respond to actions China is already taking, instead of focusing too heavily on deterring a large-scale invasion, an expert said US Air Force leaders on Thursday voiced concerns about the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) missile capabilities and its development of a “kill web,” and said that the US Department of Defense’s budget request for next year prioritizes bolstering defenses in the Indo-Pacific region due to the increasing threat posed by China. US experts said that a full-scale Chinese invasion of Taiwan is risky and unlikely, with Beijing more likely to pursue coercive tactics such as political warfare or blockades to achieve its goals. Senior air force and US Space Force leaders, including US Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink and
‘BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS’: The US military’s aim is to continue to make any potential Chinese invasion more difficult than it already is, US General Ronald Clark said The likelihood of China invading Taiwan without contest is “very, very small” because the Taiwan Strait is under constant surveillance by multiple countries, a US general has said. General Ronald Clark, commanding officer of US Army Pacific (USARPAC), the US Army’s largest service component command, made the remarks during a dialogue hosted on Friday by Washington-based think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Asked by the event host what the Chinese military has learned from its US counterpart over the years, Clark said that the first lesson is that the skill and will of US service members are “unmatched.” The second
Czech officials have confirmed that Chinese agents surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March 2024 and planned a collision with her car as part of an “unprecedented” provocation by Beijing in Europe. Czech Military Intelligence learned that their Chinese counterparts attempted to create conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, which “did not go beyond the preparation stage,” agency director Petr Bartovsky told Czech Radio in a report yesterday. In addition, a Chinese diplomat ran a red light to maintain surveillance of the Taiwanese
RSS