The fishing boat that was fired upon by a Philippine government vessel was riddled with bullet holes, suggesting that “heavy weapons” were probably used in the incident, a Taiwanese prosecutor said yesterday.
A total of 52 bullet holes were found on the Kuang Ta Hsing No. 28, Liu Chia-kai (劉嘉凱) from the Pingtung District Prosecutors’ Office, said after examining the 15-tonne vessel that is registered in Liouciou Township (琉球), Pingtung County.
Investigators found 10 holes on the port side, where the bullets penetrated parts of the boat that are quite thick. This means they may have been fired from “heavy weapons,” such as machine guns, Liu said.
Photo: CNA
Ballistics analysis will be carried out on the bullets that were found on the boat, and the 52 bullet holes have been photographed as evidence, he added.
The boat is “a scene of devastation,” said one of the forensics technicians who examined the boat, which is now docked at Ta Fu fishing port on Siaoliouciou Island (小琉球) off Pingtung.
Taiwanese fisherman Hung Shih-cheng (洪石成), 65, was killed when the Philippine Coast Guard vessel opened fire in the incident on Thursday.
Prosecutors said Hung was killed by a bullet that penetrated the right side of his neck. Liu has asked that Hung’s body be taken to Kaohsiung for forensic examination.
The shooting took place 164 nautical miles (304km) southeast of Taiwan’s southernmost tip, in waters in the overlapping exclusive economic zones of Taiwan and the Philippines.
Taipei said Manila should take full responsibility for the shooting, which it described as an “excessive use of force.”
Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lin (林永樂) yesterday said a government task force to investigate the shooting was expected to meet with Philippine authorities in Manila this week to jointly probe the incident.
“We hope the joint investigation will begin as soon as possible so that both sides can sit down and go through a cross-verification process,” Lin said.
Under the coordination of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the interagency task force is composed of representatives from the Coast Guard Administration, the Fisheries Agency and the Ministry of Justice, Lin said.
Manila has characterized the incident as an “intrusion” into its territorial waters and said that the Philippine personnel had been properly carrying out their duties to stop illegal fishing after aggressive acts by Taiwanese ships.
Taiwan rejected the claims.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Anna Kao (高安) said the government would present evidence disproving Manila’s claims.
Lin and Philippine Representative to Taiwan Antonio Basilio yesterday visited the family of Hung in Pingtung to convey their condolences, during which Basilio again offered an apology on behalf of the Philippine government.
Lin reiterated Taipei’s three demands: that the Philippine government offer an apology to the Republic of China government, provide compensation for Hung’s family and bring the culprit to justice.
Separately yesterday, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) called for support from lawmakers across party lines for a proposed amendment to the Shipping Act (航業法) that would allow deep-sea fishing and commercial vessels to hire armed civil guards for their protection.
The Ministry of National Defense said it would step up naval and air patrols to protect fishing vessels.
The CGA said it had dispatched two ships — one equipped with a 20mm cannon and the other with a 40mm cannon — for daily patrols of the waters between Taiwan and the Philippines.
More vessels will be dispatched to the waters during the upcoming peak fishing season, it added.
Additional reporting by Rich Chang
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never