The coast guard yesterday confronted a Chinese fishing boat carrying 173 smuggled birds when it attempted to enter Kinmen, as health experts warned of the potential for a devastating outbreak of avian flu in Taiwan.
The birds were immediately destroyed.
The Coast Guard Administration said in a press statement that at 4:30am yesterday, the coast guard discovered a Chinese fishing boat attempting to come ashore at Hsiaokinmen.
20 boxes
As a coast guard vessel approached the boat, two Chinese fishermen threw 20 boxes of birds toward the shore and fled.
The coast guard was unable to intercept the boat, but 173 live birds were found in the boxes. They included Japanese white-eyes, redthroats and daurian redstarts.
Upon discovering the birds, the coast guard called in epidemic prevention experts. The coast guard said that the birds were judged to be potential carriers of avian flu and were destroyed.
The site of the attempted landing was also disinfected.
The birds would have ended up in Taiwanese bird markets if it had not seized the shipment, the coast guard said.
The coast guard warned the public against helping smugglers bring birds into the country, and not to buy birds if their origin was unclear.
Flu risk
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) has expressed concern over smuggling from China through the "small three links" -- direct trade and transport between Kinmen, Matsu and China -- saying that Taiwanese and Chinese fishermen might spark an outbreak of avian flu or other diseases in Taiwan by circumventing health and sanitary controls.
The president therefore ordered the government to conduct strict surveillance and interception operations in the area, focusing on illegally imported animals and animal products.
The Coast Guard Administration has launched a crackdown on Chinese vessels entering waters off the outlying islands of Kinmen, Matsu and Penghu to counter smuggling.
The combined effect of the monsoon, the outer rim of Typhoon Fengshen and a low-pressure system is expected to bring significant rainfall this week to various parts of the nation, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The heaviest rain is expected to occur today and tomorrow, with torrential rain expected in Keelung’s north coast, Yilan and the mountainous regions of Taipei and New Taipei City, the CWA said. Rivers could rise rapidly, and residents should stay away from riverbanks and avoid going to the mountains or engaging in water activities, it said. Scattered showers are expected today in central and
COOPERATION: Taiwan is aligning closely with US strategic objectives on various matters, including China’s rare earths restrictions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan could deal with China’s tightened export controls on rare earth metals by turning to “urban mining,” a researcher said yesterday. Rare earth metals, which are used in semiconductors and other electronic components, could be recovered from industrial or electronic waste to reduce reliance on imports, National Cheng Kung University Department of Resources Engineering professor Lee Cheng-han (李政翰) said. Despite their name, rare earth elements are not actually rare — their abundance in the Earth’s crust is relatively high, but they are dispersed, making extraction and refining energy-intensive and environmentally damaging, he said, adding that many countries have opted to
FORCED LABOR: A US court listed three Taiwanese and nine firms based in Taiwan in its indictment, with eight of the companies registered at the same address Nine companies registered in Taiwan, as well as three Taiwanese, on Tuesday were named by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs) as a result of a US federal court indictment. The indictment unsealed at the federal court in Brooklyn, New York, said that Chen Zhi (陳志), a dual Cambodian-British national, is being indicted for fraud conspiracy, money laundering and overseeing Prince Holding Group’s forced-labor scam camps in Cambodia. At its peak, the company allegedly made US$30 million per day, court documents showed. The US government has seized Chen’s noncustodial wallet, which contains
SUPPLY CHAIN: Taiwan’s advantages in the drone industry include rapid production capacity that is independent of Chinese-made parts, the economic ministry said The Executive Yuan yesterday approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion (US$1.44 billion) into domestic production of uncrewed aerial vehicles over the next six years, bringing Taiwan’s output value to more than NT$40 billion by 2030 and making the nation Asia’s democratic hub for the drone supply chain. The proposed budget has NT$33.8 billion in new allocations and NT$10.43 billion in existing funds, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said. Under the new development program, the public sector would purchase nearly 100,000 drones, of which 50,898 would be for civil and government use, while 48,750 would be for national defense, it said. The Ministry of
RSS