A Chinese speedboat pursued by Taiwan Coast Guard personnel for illegally entering Taiwanese waters capsized near Kinmen County on Wednesday, sending all four people on the boat into the water and killing two of them, the Coast Guard Administration said.
The unnamed Chinese vessel had been trespassing yesterday afternoon by sailing about 1 nautical mile off the coast of an islet of Kinmen, the agency said in a statement.
The Chinese vessel attempted to flee but capsized.
Photo courtesy of the Offshore Flotilla 9, Coast Guard Administration’s Kinmen-Matsu-Penghu Branch
Coast Guard personnel discovered an unnamed Chinese speedboat carrying four people in prohibited waters 1.1 nautical miles east of Beiding Island (北碇) at 1:45pm yesterday, while on duty to prevent unauthorized vessels from entering the area, the agency's Kinmen-Matsu-Penghu Branch said in a statement.
The personnel immediately requested that the boat submit to an inspection, but it resisted and capsized as it attempted to speed away.
All four people on the boat fell into the water and were rescued on the spot by Coast Guard personnel and sent to hospital.
Two were pronounced dead after efforts to resuscitate them failed, the agency said.
The other two are in stable condition and have been brought to Kinmen for further investigation by prosecutors.
The Coast Guard said the fishers' families were being contacted via official channels.
It said the case has been reported to the Kinmen prosecutors' office.
Kinmen is in the Taiwan Strait that separates China and Taiwan. From some parts of the archipelago, the southern Chinese city of Xiamen is visible to the naked eye.
Kinmen residents in recent years have reported seeing an increase in sand dredger vessels from China, which take sand from the ocean floor, as well as fishing ships, close to its coast.
At times, dozens of the ships can be seen from the island.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
‘MALIGN PURPOSE’: Governments around the world conduct espionage operations, but China’s is different, as its ultimate goal is annexation, a think tank head said Taiwan is facing a growing existential threat from its own people spying for China, experts said, as the government seeks to toughen measures to stop Beijing’s infiltration efforts and deter Taiwanese turncoats. While Beijing and Taipei have been spying on each other for years, experts said that espionage posed a bigger threat to Taiwan due to the risk of a Chinese attack. Taiwan’s intelligence agency said China used “diverse channels and tactics” to infiltrate the nation’s military, government agencies and pro-China organizations. The main targets were retired and active members of the military, persuaded by money, blackmail or pro-China ideology to steal
RSS