A Chinese fisherman was sentenced on Monday last week to 80 days in detention, commutable to a fine and a suspended sentence of two years, for entering Taiwan illegally and engaging in criminal coercion in Keelung.
At about 6am on Oct. 2 last year, while his fishing boat was moored at Keelung’s Zhengbin Fishing Port (正濱漁港), the man identified by his surname, Jiang (蔣), went ashore without permission to buy breakfast.
Shortly afterward, he saw a young man waiting at a bus stop. Jiang approached him and forced his arms around him, the indictment from the Keelung District Prosecutors’ Office said.
Photo: Lin Chia-tung, Taipei Times
After the teenager verbally rejected the fisherman’s advances repeatedly, Jiang let him go and returned to his fishing boat, it said.
The teenager contacted the police, who reviewed surveillance footage and arrested Jiang, it said, adding that after the police obtained a statement from him, they handed Jiang over to the prosecutors’ office.
Following an investigation by the prosecutors’ office, Jiang was indicted for entering Taiwan without permission in contravention 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).
He was also indicted for criminal coercion under Article 304 of the Criminal Code for hugging the teenager against his will.
In addition to the sentence, which can be suspended for two years, Jiang must pay a NT$10,000 fine within one year following the court’s final judgement.
The ruling can still be appealed.
A former member of the US Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU), formerly known as SEAL Team 6, said in an interview with Business Insider that the elite unit’s role in a Taiwan Strait conflict would be more limited than some might expect. The report follows an earlier one in September by the Financial Times, which said the “clandestine US Navy commando unit” has been training for missions to help Taiwan if it is invaded by China. “You don’t use a scalpel for a job a hammer can do,” the former Navy Seal said to Business Insider on condition of anonymity.
HACKERS’ MARKET: Chat logs about Taiwan and documents outlining ways to take over online accounts were leaked from a company that sells data from hacks Taiwanese cybersecurity specialists found 577 leaked documents which show that the Chinese Communist Party is engaging in “cognitive warfare” against Taiwan through cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns, a documentary released last month by Japanese public broadcaster NHK showed. The filmmakers behind Tracking China’s Leaked Documents said they spent six months visiting seven countries, including Taiwan, where they interviewed members of TeamT5, a malware research and cybersecurity firm, which found the leaked documents. TeamT5 said they discovered a string of mysterious URLs on the social media platform X, which they suspected could be accounts created by hackers or people who leaked data, which led
RESOURCE RICH: Taiwan is located in the Pacific Ring of Fire and has up to 30 gigawatts of the potential energy, of which 10 gigawatts could be economically viable Academia Sinica and CPC Corp yesterday began drilling the nation’s first deep geothermal well in Yilan County’s Yuanshan Township (員山). The 4km-deep well is expected to take 18 months to complete and has an estimated investment of NT$337 million (US$10.54 million), Academia Sinica President James Liao (廖俊智) said. “While Taiwan has up to 30 gigawatts of potential deep geothermal energy, with an estimated 10 gigawatts being economically viable, only by digging wells can we determine the actual amount of commercially viable geothermal energy,” Liao said at the project’s opening ceremony. Data collected during and after the excavation process would be used for future
Rain is to increase from Wednesday morning as Severe Tropical Storm Kong-Rey approaches, with sea warnings to be issued as early as tomorrow afternoon, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. As of 8am, Kong-Rey was 1,050km east-southeast of the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春) heading in a northwesterly direction toward Taiwan, CWA Forecast Center Director Lin Po-tung (林伯東) said. Rainfall is to increase from Wednesday morning, especially in northern Taiwan and Yilan County, he said. A sea warning is possible from tomorrow afternoon, while a land warning may be issued on Wednesday morning, he added. Kong-Rey may intensify into a moderate typhoon as it passes