Two Taiwanese fishing boats reported that they were fired upon by what they believed to be an official Indonesian vessel while in the Strait of Malacca early yesterday.
The owner of the Sheng Te Tsai, registered in Pingtung County’s Liouciou Township (琉球), surnamed Lee, said he received a satellite telephone call from the skipper, Lin Nan-yang, shortly after 5am to say that his ship and the Lien I Hsing No. 116 were being shot at.
In one of the messages sent from the ships, crew members said they believed the vessel belonged to the Indonesian military, because they saw “2804” on the vessel, which is used for official vessels of the Southeast Asian nation.
Photo: CNA
The two Taiwanese ships, which were heading to Singapore to offload their catches and stock up on supplies, reported their location at 6 degrees 15 minutes north latitude and 97 degrees 40 minutes east longitude respectively when the shooting took place.
Lin said the 20 crew members of both ships were unharmed, but added that the Sheng Te Tsai had more than 10 bullet holes.
Lin told Lee that the shots were mainly aimed at the cockpits of the two ships, which Lee said was unusual given that warning shots tend to target the back of a vessel or the water around it.
The two fishing boats left Pingtung in late November last year and have been working in the Indian Ocean — they are expected to dock in Singapore later this week.
Liouciou Fishermen’s Association chief executive Tsai Pao-hsing (蔡寶興) said that the route the two vessels took along the center line of the Strait of Malacca is usually safe, although pirate attacks have been reported by fishermen.
Ismail Mae (買睿明), director of the Press Information Division at the Taipei Economic and Trade Office in Indonesia, said in Jakarta that the office would contact the Indonesian government to clarify whether the attack was launched by an official vessel after it gathers more information.
Yunus Ismail, deputy head of the press office at Indonesian Navy Headquarters, said there had been no report by the Indonesian coast guard or navy vessels of chasing Taiwanese fishing boats.
He said the headquarters would check with the naval base on Batam Island to see if any official Indonesian vessels were involved in the shooting.
Fisheries Agency Deputy Director-General Huang Hung-yan (黃鴻燕) said in Taipei that Taiwan does not rule out negotiating a fisheries agreement with Indonesia, similar to those signed with Japan and the Philippines, to better protect Taiwanese fishermen.
Meanwhile, Indonesia said that it “feels sabotaged” in its efforts to maintain peace in the disputed South China Sea.
An incident over the weekend involved an Indonesian patrol boat and a Chinese coast guard vessel and fishing boat, in what Indonesia said was its waters.
Indonesian Marine Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti said: “We may take it to the international tribunal of the law of the sea.”
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the fishing boat was operating in “traditional Chinese fishing grounds.”
Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi said eight detained Chinese fishermen are to be processed in accordance with Indonesian law.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
‘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