Eight Chinese fishermen were apprehended and taken in for questioning yesterday after the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) mounted a commando-style operation to rescue three of its officers the fishermen had allegedly taken hostage in the Taiwan Strait.
The incident began with confrontations between Taiwanese and Chinese fishermen in waters off the coast of Hsinchu County on Wednesday, and escalated when the three coast guard officers were allegedly abducted after boarding a Chinese ship.
CGA officials said it was necessary to take decisive action and dispatched armed patrol vessels with specially trained officers to prevent the hostages being taken to China.
Photo: Huang Chieh, Taipei Times
The officials said one officer sustained minor injuries during the raid.
All three hostages were safely back in Taiwan yesterday, but slightly shaken from the ordeal, officials said.
Officials confirmed that coast guard officers carried 9mm handguns, M16 assault rifles and Remington 870 12-gauge shotguns, and fired 14 shots to overpower the hostage-takers when storming the Chinese fishing vessel No. 7666.
The incident began on Wednesday afternoon, when 25 crab cages belonging to a Taiwanese ship became entangled in the fishing nets of Chinese fishing vessel No. 7666 about 36 nautical miles (67km) offshore of Hsinchu County in the Taiwan Strait, and the cages with its catches were towed toward China’s coast.
CGA 35-tonne class patrol boat PP-3570 was alerted and arrived to help negotiate, as both sides initially agreed to resolve the matter at a nearby Taiwanese port.
Personnel were exchanged as a safety precaution, with the chief officer from the Chinese side boarding the Taiwanese fishing boat, while three coast guard officers headed by a squad captain surnamed Ku (古) boarded the Chinese vessel, officials said.
However, at about 11:30pm, the Chinese vessel reneged on the verbal agreement and turned around to head to China, with the three coast guard officers held as hostages aboard, officials said.
After receiving emergency calls, the coast guard dispatched three additional patrol boats — the PP-10037 (174-tonne class), PP-3580 and PP-3538 (both 35-tonne class), to rescue their fellow coast guard officers, they said.
The four patrol boats corralled the target vessel and mounted a commando-style raid to overpower the crew and boarded the Chinese ship at about 2am yesterday to rescue the three captives, coast guard officials said.
None of the eight Chinese crew members were injured, officials said.
The crew members were taken for questioning at the CGA Maritime Patrol Directorate-General Headquarters in New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水).
Since it involved hostage-taking and other illegal activities, officials said public prosecutors would likely lay charges against the Chinese fishermen pending further investigation.
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
RSS