A Chinese man who was arrested by the coast guard after driving a speedboat near the mouth of the Tamsui River (淡水河) in New Taipei City in June has been indicted for illegally entering Taiwan, the Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday.
The man is suspected of violating 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) and the Immigration Act (入出國及移民法) for having entered Taiwan without official permits, the prosecutors’ office said.
The man, who is being held in a detention center of the National Immigration Agency’s New Taipei City specialized operation brigade, was handed over to the Shilin District Court for trial yesterday morning, it said.
Photo: Chang Wen-chuan, Taipei Times
The Chinese national, who said he was restricted from leaving the country for online speech issues, bought a speedboat for 36,000 yuan (US$5,044) at Sandu’ao port in China’s Fujian Province on the morning of June 8, it said.
He set off from the port by speedboat at about 10pm the same day, according to a statement issued on Tuesday by the prosecutors’ office.
He drove the boat toward Taiwan and arrived at the Tamsui ferry pier at about 9am the next day, it said.
The coast guard began monitoring the small boat on the morning of June 9 after receiving a report that the vessel had hit a local commercial passenger vessel as it approached Fisherman’s Wharf, the office said.
The man went ashore and said he was there to surrender after riding his boat over from China, it said.
He told investigators: “I wanted to flee from there,” and “I came from China for democracy,” but he was arrested by the coast guard, which also seized his boat and GPS receiver, the office said.
The Chinese man said he took the risk of going to Taiwan to seek asylum because he was restricted from leaving the country for making unfavorable remarks, it said.
After the coast guard handed the man over to prosecutors, they filed a motion with the district court to have him detained, which the court granted, and he was held at a National Immigration Agency detention center.
The coast guard initially suspected that the man’s motive for coming to Taiwan involved national security issues, given his background as a member of the Chinese Communist Party and the spare fuel in his speedboat.
However, after an investigation, it determined that the man, who had been a Chinese lieutenant commander and the captain of a naval ship, was not involved in a military or national security offense based on two factors.
There was no evidence on his mobile phone of communication between him and any Taiwanese person, and he only had a small amount of foreign currency, including Japanese yen and Singaporean dollars, on him.
Prosecutors did not recommend a sentence for the suspect, but under the Immigration Act, people who enter Taiwan without permission are subject to jail terms of up to five years and/or a fine of up to NT$500,000.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) departed for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark. Tsai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday night, but did not speak to reporters before departing. Tsai wrote on social media later that the purpose of the trip was to reaffirm the commitment of Taiwanese to working with democratic allies to promote regional security and stability, upholding freedom and democracy, and defending their homeland. She also expressed hope that through joint efforts, Taiwan and Europe would continue to be partners building up economic resilience on the global stage. The former president was to first
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
MORE NEEDED: Recall drives against legislators in Miaoli’s two districts and Hsinchu’s second district were still a few thousand signatures short of the second-stage threshold Campaigners aiming to recall Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators yesterday said they expect success in 30 out of 35 districts where drives have passed the second-stage threshold, which would mark a record number of recall votes held at once. Hsinchu County recall campaigners yesterday announced that they reached the second-stage threshold in the recall effort against Legislator Lin Szu-ming (林思銘). A total of 26,414 signatures have been gathered over the past two months, surpassing the 10 percent threshold of 23,287 in Hsinchu County’s second electoral district, chief campaigner Hsieh Ting-ting (謝婷婷) said. “Our target is to gather an additional 1,500 signatures to reach
RSS