Four fishermen returned to Taiwan safe and sound yesterday after miraculously turning up five days after their boat capsized and disappeared from the radar.
Captain Ho Mao-hsiung (何茂雄), 69, and three crew members all above the age of 55 were returning from China, shuttling a Chinese fisherman to work in Taiwan, a Fisheries Agency (FA) official said.
Fisheries regulation division director Chern Yuh-chen (陳玉琛) said the Keelung-registered Ching-hung 168 had been ferrying fishermen from China since last year, adding that five other fishing boats were authorized for this function.
“After picking up 31-year-old Chinese fisherman Xu Changyun (許長雲) on the 25th of last month, although the boat was scheduled to pick up other fishermen, Ho wanted to head back to Taiwan early because of the alarm for Typhoon Fung-wong,” Chern said.
“But on the way back the boat experienced a severe mechanical malfunction. After Ho radioed in to report the malfunction, the boat caught fire and capsized,” she said.
The agency teamed up with the Coast Guard Administration, the National Rescue Command Center, the Straits Exchange Foundation and Beijing’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait, launching rescue efforts the same day, Chern said.
“On the 27th, Xu swam ashore in China and called for help, confirming that the boat had sunk,” Chern said.
While Xu swam for two days before reaching shore, Ho and his colleagues drifted for 20-odd hours, eventually arriving an uninhabited island off Fujian Province, where they spent four days, Ho told the Taipei Times by phone yesterday.
“As we drifted at sea within the storm radius of Fung-wong, we only had life jackets and a buoy ... One of my crew, Chen Chang-keng [陳長庚], could not swim very well, but we all encouraged each other to keep going,” he said.
“We basically survived on our will,” he said.
Ho, Chen, 57-year-old Lee Kun-tsai (李坤財) and 62-year-old Lin Ching-tsung (林慶宗) were together throughout their 113-hour ordeal, spending three days hiking around the uninhabited island looking for help.
The men survived on the little food they could find and rainwater, Ho said.
“After we were rescued [by a Chinese fishing boat], the Chinese authorities transported us to Beiao Island (北澳) nearby for medical attention and informed our families [so they could] come,” he said.
Asked how he felt to be back in Taiwan, Ho said: “On the island, we walked and walked, got blisters on the soles of our feet and were sunburned so badly we were shedding a layer of skin ... What kept me moving was the thought of my family; I knew they must be worried about me back home and I thought I had to get back alive and safe.”
“We are especially grateful to the governmental agencies and civil groups in Taiwan and China and the aid teams who found us and gave us medical care,” he said.
People can preregister to receive their NT$10,000 (US$325) cash distributed from the central government on Nov. 5 after President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday signed the Special Budget for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience, the Executive Yuan told a news conference last night. The special budget, passed by the Legislative Yuan on Friday last week with a cash handout budget of NT$236 billion, was officially submitted to the Executive Yuan and the Presidential Office yesterday afternoon. People can register through the official Web site at https://10000.gov.tw to have the funds deposited into their bank accounts, withdraw the funds at automated teller
PEACE AND STABILITY: Maintaining the cross-strait ‘status quo’ has long been the government’s position, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan is committed to maintaining the cross-strait “status quo” and seeks no escalation of tensions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday, rebutting a Time magazine opinion piece that described President William Lai (賴清德) as a “reckless leader.” The article, titled “The US Must Beware of Taiwan’s Reckless Leader,” was written by Lyle Goldstein, director of the Asia Program at the Washington-based Defense Priorities think tank. Goldstein wrote that Taiwan is “the world’s most dangerous flashpoint” amid ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He said that the situation in the Taiwan Strait has become less stable
REASSURANCE: The US said Taiwan’s interests would not be harmed during the talk and that it remains steadfast in its support for the nation, the foreign minister said US President Donald Trump on Friday said he would bring up Taiwan with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) during a meeting on the sidelines of the APEC Summit in South Korea this week. “I will be talking about Taiwan [with Xi],” Trump told reporters before he departed for his trip to Asia, adding that he had “a lot of respect for Taiwan.” “We have a lot to talk about with President Xi, and he has a lot to talk about with us. I think we’ll have a good meeting,” Trump said. Taiwan has long been a contentious issue between the US and China.
FRESH LOOK: A committee would gather expert and public input on the themes and visual motifs that would appear on the notes, the central bank governor said The central bank has launched a comprehensive redesign of New Taiwan dollar banknotes to enhance anti-counterfeiting measures, improve accessibility and align the bills with global sustainability standards, Governor Yang Chin-long (楊金龍) told a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee yesterday. The overhaul would affect all five denominations — NT$100, NT$200, NT$500, NT$1,000 and NT$2,000 notes — but not coins, Yang said. It would be the first major update to the banknotes in 24 years, as the current series, introduced in 2001, has remained in circulation amid rapid advances in printing technology and security standards. “Updating the notes is essential to safeguard the integrity
RSS