Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday said the government would promptly review several incidents of Chinese illegally entering the country by boat, vowing to safeguard the nation’s security.
Cho’s comments came after a Chinese man was on Saturday found in a rubber boat at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), following a similar incident in June.
“We have already been reviewing some cases in the past and this incident has made us feel that we must speed up” those reviews, Cho said.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
“I can promise that safeguarding national security is the unshakable responsibility of the government. We must quickly review these incidents and make appropriate preparations,” he added.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said the New Taipei City Fire Department early on Saturday notified it that a man was spotted near the estuary, about 100m from the shore.
Coast guard personnel pulled the man ashore and sent him to a hospital for treatment for severe dehydration.
The man — who the coast guard said claimed he “has debts in China and wants to start a new life in Taiwan” — was later detained for attempting to enter Taiwan without permission.
Last month, Taiwanese prosecutors indicted a former Chinese naval captain who was arrested for illegally entering Taiwan by boat.
However, they said that “no military or national security involvement” was linked to the incident.
The CGA picked him up in June after his vessel collided with other boats on the Tamsui River (淡水河), which flows from Taipei to the northern coast.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus secretary-general Lin Szu-ming (林思銘) yesterday said that the CGA was slow to react in both incidents.
He also accused Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) of failing to put forth concrete solutions to secure the coast.
In response to Kuan’s earlier statement that there was no human error in the case, Lin said the CGA needed to purchase more advanced equipment for surveillance and reconnaissance.
A lack of equipment had already been discussed before, but the council did nothing about it, he said.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus secretary-general Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) yesterday said that Saturday’s case was the second such incident since President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration took office in May, and should be taken seriously no matter what the true intentions were of the people on the boats.
Regarding national security, the possibility of China deliberately testing Taiwan’s coastal defense and emergency response capabilities through “gray zone” tactics cannot be excluded, she said.
Countermeasures at a high national security level should be taken to enhance coastal defense, such as installing infrared thermographic cameras or increasing coastal patrols, Wu said.
DPP Legislator Lai Jui-lung (賴瑞隆) said that Beijing has been testing Taiwan’s national security and cohesion by any means, as well as the Lai administration’s boundaries and ability to cope with such incidents.
National security, national defense and coast guard agencies should be more careful, as China is gauging Taiwan’s response capabilities, stirring up turmoil and adding national security pressures on the nation, he said, urging Taiwanese to remain united against China’s polarization strategy.
Additional reporting by CNA
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