A Chinese man charged with illegal entry in Taiwan after crossing the Taiwan Strait in a rubber dinghy has been sentenced to eight months in prison today.
At the time of his arrival, the 32-year-old man, surnamed Wang (王), called 119 to confess and say he had fled to Taiwan to “seek freedom,” the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office said.
He was found guilty of violating the Immigration Act (入出國及移民法).
Photo copied by Wu Jen-chieh, Taipei Times
Wang’s unauthorized entry undermined Taiwan’s national security, prosecutors said, although they also took into consideration his confession, surrender and economic situation when charging him, they added.
Wang, as a resident of China, cannot be deported under Article 95 of the Criminal Code. However, the authorities can choose to deport him under Article 18 of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (台灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the ruling states.
Wang bought all his equipment, including the rubber boat, solar charging panels and oil barrels, from Chinese e-commerce platform Taobao, prosecutors said.
Additionally, he had weather maps, wind charts and screenshots of the sea conditions for locations around Taiwan, prosecutors said.
He set sail from Taizhou in China’s Zhejiang Province at 9am on Sep. 9 last year and ran aground near the Shantou coast in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口) at about 6am on Sep. 14, prosecutors said.
He used offline maps and the weather apps to navigate, charging his phone with the solar panels he bought from Taobao, prosecutors added.
When firefighters arrived on the scene, they found him sunburned and dehydrated about 100m away from the rubber boat, with eyewitnesses quoting him as saying that he hoped to start a new life in Taiwan.
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