Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.”
The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said.
The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a man near the estuary.
Photo copied by Wu Jen-chieh, Taipei Times
Its personnel arrived at the scene at about 6:50am, pulled the man ashore at about 7am and sent him to hospital, as he was severely dehydrated, the CGA said.
The man, surnamed Wang (王), was quoted by the CGA as saying that he had set sail from Niuweitang Beach in Ningbo, China, to flee from debt and “seek freedom” in Taiwan.
Chinese nationals may not enter Taiwan without permission from Taiwanese authorities as stipulated in Article 10 of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the MAC said.
Those who enter or exit Taiwan without permission may be sentenced to prison for up to five years or fined up to NT$500,000, as required by Article 74 of the Immigration Act (入出國及移民法), it said.
The CGA is handling the case and Wang has been transferred to judicial authorities for further investigation, it added.
The CGA said human error was not responsible for yesterday’s incident, as its radar system was not capable of detecting the rubber boat.
The boat was very small — 3.6m in length — and was made of rubber and drifting on the sea, so it could not have been detected without infrared thermographic cameras, it said.
To boost its detection capacity, it would install more monitoring devices such as thermal cameras, and obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and advanced vessels, the CGA said.
New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said the case was the second such incident in three months and the central government should take action.
He was referring to a previous incident in June when a Chinese retired sea captain, 60, surnamed Ruan (阮), drove a motorboat into a harbor at the mouth of a river leading to Taipei, claiming he was “escaping to democracy.”
People who admire Taiwan’s freedom and democracy are welcome to enter the nation via legal routes, Hou said while urging the central government to beware of illegal entries like yesterday’s incident and determine whether these are a new type of threat.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋) said that incidents like this have occurred a dozen times in Taiwan proper and its outlying islands, so the possibility of China applying “gray zone” tactics in the waters cannot be excluded.
Although the radar’s inability to detect the rubber boat delayed the authorities’ response, other systems such as thermographic devices can be used and should be installed as soon as possible, Shen said.
Regardless of the incidents involving Chinese nationals defecting or being Beijing’s “gray zone” maneuvers, Taiwan should be seriously prepared for risks, he added.
Additional reporting by Chen Cheng-yu, Chiu Chun-fu and CNA
BACK IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD: The planned transit by the ‘Baden-Wuerttemberg’ and the ‘Frankfurt am Main’ would be the German Navy’s first passage since 2002 Two German warships are set to pass through the Taiwan Strait in the middle of this month, becoming the first German naval vessels to do so in 22 years, Der Spiegel reported on Saturday. Reuters last month reported that the warships, the frigate Baden-Wuerttemberg and the replenishment ship Frankfurt am Main, were awaiting orders from Berlin to sail the Strait, prompting a rebuke to Germany from Beijing. Der Spiegel cited unspecified sources as saying Beijing would not be formally notified of the German ships’ passage to emphasize that Berlin views the trip as normal. The German Federal Ministry of Defense declined to comment. While
‘UPHOLDING PEACE’: Taiwan’s foreign minister thanked the US Congress for using a ‘creative and effective way’ to deter Chinese military aggression toward the nation The US House of Representatives on Monday passed the Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act, aimed at deterring Chinese aggression toward Taiwan by threatening to publish information about Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials’ “illicit” financial assets if Beijing were to attack. The act would also “restrict financial services for certain immediate family of such officials,” the text of the legislation says. The bill was introduced in January last year by US representatives French Hill and Brad Sherman. After remarks from several members, it passed unanimously. “If China chooses to attack the free people of Taiwan, [the bill] requires the Treasury secretary to publish the illicit
A senior US military official yesterday warned his Chinese counterpart against Beijing’s “dangerous” moves in the South China Sea during the first talks of their kind between the commanders. Washington and Beijing remain at odds on issues from trade to the status of Taiwan and China’s increasingly assertive approach in disputed maritime regions, but they have sought to re-establish regular military-to-military talks in a bid to prevent flashpoint disputes from spinning out of control. Samuel Paparo, commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, and Wu Yanan (吳亞男), head of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Southern Theater Command, talked via videoconference. Paparo “underscored the importance
CHINA POLICY: At the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China, the two sides issued strong support for Taiwan and condemned China’s actions in the South China Sea The US and EU issued a joint statement on Wednesday supporting Taiwan’s international participation, notably omitting the “one China” policy in a departure from previous similar statements, following high-level talks on China and the Indo-Pacific region. The statement also urged China to show restraint in the Taiwan Strait. US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and European External Action Service Secretary-General Stefano Sannino cochaired the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China and the sixth US-EU Indo-Pacific Consultations from Monday to Tuesday. Since the Indo-Pacific consultations were launched in 2021, references to the “one China” policy have appeared in every statement apart from the