Chen blames China for deaths

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday said Beijing should shoulder responsibility for the drowning deaths of six Chinese women who were thrown into the sea by Taiwanese smugglers on Tuesday.

"Although the human traffickers, boat owners and pimps should be responsible for the incident, the authorities in Beijing should take most of the responsibility, and China's leaders cannot escape it," Chen said while receiving a group of Australian lawmakers.

Smugglers threw 26 Chinese women overboard early on Tuesday near Tunghsiao, Miaoli County, as they tried to escape pursuing coast guard boats.

Chen said the women were "using their feet to vote" against the Chinese government by risking their lives to get to Taiwan.

"What Beijing should endeavor to do is prevent its nationals from escaping to Taiwan, instead of protesting against Taiwan's participation in the international community, including blocking Taiwan's bid to join the World Health Organization and demanding its diplomatic allies boycott ROC passports with the word `Taiwan' on the cover," he said.

"It's really bewildering. What China should care about is protecting human lives and the property of its people, but what it actually does is unceasingly oppress Taiwan's international participation," the president said.

The DPP yesterday condemned the brutality of the smugglers but also urged the Chinese government to step up measures to prevent illegal immigration to Taiwan.

"China has been reluctant to curb rampant human trafficking and sometimes simply turns a blind eye to the situation," said Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦), deputy director of the DPP's Department of Information and Culture.

Cheng said China's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait has also been procrastinating over demands by its counterpart in Taiwan, the Straits Exchange Foundation, to discus how illegal Chinese immigrants are repatriated. He said this was an example of China's indifference toward the issue that ultimately led to this latest tragedy.

The 20 women rescued yesterday are being cared for at the Coast Guard Administration's branch office in Lukang, Changhua County, from where they will be deported to China.

The four Taiwanese smugglers -- Yeh Tien-sheng (葉天勝), Tseng Chung-ming (曾炯明), Wang Chung-hsing (王中興) and Ko Ching-song (柯清松) -- are being held at Miaoli Prosecutors' Office. Prosecutors said they could face murder charges.

The Coast Guard Administration discovered the smugglers on Tuesday morning and gave chase. The smugglers then forced the women into the sea even though some of them protested that they could not swim.

In related news yesterday, the police caught another 13 Chinese women being smuggled into Taiwan.

Illegal immigration is common along the west coast because its sandy beaches make covert landings easy.