The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) was yesterday working with Chinese rescuers to find two missing crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank southwest of Kinmen County yesterday, killing two crew.
The joint operation managed to rescue two of the boat’s six crewmembers, but two were already dead when they were pulled from the water, the agency said in a statement.
Rescuers are still searching for two others from the Min Long Yu 61222, a boat registered in China’s Fujian Province that capsized and sank 1.03 nautical miles (1.9km) southwest of Dongding Island (東碇), it added.
Photo courtesy of the Coast Guard Administration via CNA
CGA Director-General Chou Mei-wu (周美伍) told a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee that the boat sank about 555m inside Taiwan’s “prohibited waters,” an area in which coast guard vessels are authorized to control the activity of foreign vessels.
Both sides were striving to locate the missing crew within the “golden rescue time” of 72 hours, Chou added.
Four boats from the Ninth (Kinmen) Maritime Patrol along with six helicopters and three vessels from China were conducting a joint search within a 37km radius of where the boat capsized, the CGA said.
The four ships were dispatched after a request for assistance was received from the China Maritime Safety Administration shortly after 6am, it said.
Taiwanese authorities have not publicly commented on the cause of the boat’s capsizing at press time last night.
Sources with knowledge of the matter said that two of the crewmembers remained missing.
The Ministry of National Defense said it had asked the air force’s Combat Command, the navy’s Fleet Command and the army’s Kinmen Defense Command to keep monitoring the situation.
Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said that the two sides were working closely to rescue the crew of the lost vessel and were maintaining good communication.
“China has shown respect for the proper procedures and we are facilitating this process out of humanitarian concerns,” she said. “China’s coast guard displayed goodwill by avoiding [our] waters and we urge the public to avoid forming misunderstandings.”
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said it requested the help of Taiwan’s Chinese Search and Rescue Association after the boat ran into a reef off Dongding Island at about 2am.
Chinese rescue teams had taken surviving crewmembers and the bodies of the dead back, the Mainland Affairs Council said, adding that no demand for compensation was filed on the families’ behalf.
Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) praised the rescue operation, saying previous efforts “have shown that China and Taiwan can work together in humanitarian aid.”
Chou also recalled several previous joint rescue efforts by Taiwanese and Chinese authorities.
“In the past three years, we have had 17 cases like this where they [China] asked us for support, and we rescued 119 people,” he said.
Such cooperation between the two sides is common and close, but Taiwan has always adopted a policy of “rescue those in distress, and expel or ban those who violate the law,” Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) wrote on Facebook.
However, politicizing normal responses to illegal movement by unregistered and unflagged boats in a nation’s territorial waters should be condemned, he added.
From July 2016 to November last year, Taiwan penalized nearly 20 Chinese dredgers, confiscated 16 boats and more than 25,000 tonnes of illegally dredged sand, and chased away more than 9,100 boats from its waters, CGA data showed.
Separately, Kuan on Wednesday apologized for the CGA’s shortcomings in collecting evidence during a fatal boat chase off Kinmen last month, which left two Chinese nationals dead.
Amid public criticism of the council’s handling of the case on Feb. 14, Kuan told lawmakers that inadequate evidence collection had resulted in public concern and emotional distress for the affected families.
The council has directed the CGA to establish a committee to conduct a thorough review aimed at enhancing duty management, equipment installation and evidence collection, among others, she said.
Additional reporting by Hung Ting-hung and AFP
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday said that the Chinese Communist Party was planning and implementing “major” reforms, ahead of a political conclave that is expected to put economic recovery high on the agenda. Chinese policymakers have struggled to reignite growth since late 2022, when restrictions put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic were lifted. The world’s second-largest economy is beset by a debt crisis in the property sector, persistently low consumption and high unemployment among young people. Policymakers “are planning and implementing major measures to further deepen reform in a comprehensive manner,” Xi said in a speech at the Great Hall
CIVIL DEFENSE: More reservists in alternative service would help establish a sound civil defense system for use in wartime and during natural disasters, Kuma Academy’s CEO said While a total of 120,000 reservists are expected to be called up for alternative reserve drills this year, compared with the 6,505 drilled last year, the number has been revised to 58,000 due to a postponed training date, Deputy Minster of the Interior Ma Shih-yuan (馬士元) said. In principle, the ministry still aims to call up 120,000 reservists for alternative reserve drills next year, he said, but the actual number would not be decided later until after this year’s evaluation. The increase follows a Legislative Yuan request that the Ministry of the Interior address low recruitment rates, which it made while reviewing
WARNING: China has stepped up harassment of foreign vessels after its new regulation took effect last month, an official said, citing an incident in the Diaoyutai Islands The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday linked China’s seizure of a Taiwanese fishing vessel illegally operating in its territorial waters to Beijing’s new regulation authorizing the China Coast Guard to seize boats in waters it claims. Chinese officials boarded and then seized a Taiwanese fishing vessel operating near China’s coast close to Kinmen County late on Tuesday and took it to a Chinese port, the CGA said. The Penghu-registered squid fishing vessel Da Jin Man No. 88 (大進滿88) was boarded and seized by China Coast Guard east-northeast of Liaoluo Bay (料羅灣), 17.5 nautical miles (32.4km) from Taiwan’s restricted waters off Kinmen,
DETERRENCE: Along with US$500 million in military aid and up to US$2 billion in loans and loan guarantees, the bill would allocate US$400 million to countering PRC influence The US House of Representatives on Friday approved an appropriations bill for fiscal year 2025 that includes US$500 million in military aid for Taiwan. The legislation, which authorizes funding for the US Department of State, US foreign operations and related programs for next year, passed 212-200 in the Republican-led House. The bill stipulates that the US would provide no less than US$500 million in foreign military financing for Taiwan to enhance deterrence across the Taiwan Strait, and offer Taipei up to US$2 billion in loans and loan guarantees for the same purpose. The funding would be made available under the US’ Foreign Military