Two Taiwanese coast guard officers and three Chinese fishermen from Xiamen were injured in a clash yesterday morning when a coast guard patrol tried to stop a Chinese fishing boat from poaching in Taiwan’s territorial waters off the outlying islet of Little Kinmen (小金門).
The incident quickly escalated into a standoff between three Taiwanese coast guard patrol vessels and 28 Chinese fishing boats.
It started when a fishing boat from China was spotted at about 1:30am yesterday, fishing illegally in Taiwan’s territorial waters off Little Kinmen — an islet west of the main island of Kinmen, close to China’s southeastern coast.
PHOTO: WU CHENG-TING, TAIPEI TIMES
A cutter from the Coast Guard Administration’s Kinmen unit intercepted the fishing boat and two coast guard officers went aboard in an attempt to inspect it, but they were attacked by the Xiamen fishermen with stones and bamboo poles.
The two officers sustained injuries to the head and ribs and three Chinese fishermen were also hurt.
The Kinmen patrol cutter called for backup and two other coast guard boats rushed to the scene. The Chinese fishermen were arrested and the wounded were taken to hospital for treatment.
One of the three injured fishermen was rushed to the hospital on the main island of Kinmen for treatment, while three others were taken to the coast guard’s Kinmen Office for questioning.
However, during the clash, the Xiamen fishing boat also radioed for assistance and drew a response from 28 other Chinese fishing boats with more than 80 people aboard.
The fishing vessels converged on Little Kinmen’s Luocuo Fishing Port (羅厝漁港), where they staged a stand-off with the coastguard patrol.
The Chinese men on the fishing vessels shouted at the coast guard, demanding the release of the Xiamen fishermen who had been arrested.
Su Sheng-chin (蘇勝欽), deputy chief of the Kinmen unit of the coast guard, went to the port and succeeded in calming the Chinese fishermen after many hours. The 28 boats left Luocuo Fishing Port at 7am.
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
The government is considering polices to increase rental subsidies for people living in social housing who get married and have children, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. During an interview with the Plain Law Movement (法律白話文) podcast, Cho said that housing prices cannot be brought down overnight without affecting banks and mortgages. Therefore, the government is focusing on providing more aid for young people by taking 3 to 5 percent of urban renewal projects and zone expropriations and using that land for social housing, he said. Single people living in social housing who get married and become parents could obtain 50 percent more
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
RSS