China must improve the education of its fishermen and stop them from trespassing into Taiwanese waters, the government said on Saturday after two Chinese fishermen were injured resisting Coast Guard Administration (CGA) orders near Penghu.
The fishermen’s boat, which had departed from Nanao Island in Guangdong Province, was detected 23 nautical miles (42.6km) west of Penghu’s westernmost Huayu Islet (花嶼) at about 5:20am, the coast guard said.
The boat refused to stop for inspection, despite several warnings, it said.
Photo: CNA, courtesy of Maritime Patrol Offshore Flotilla 8
Coast guard personnel fired rubber bullets to force the boat to stop, injuring two crew members in the leg, the coast guard said.
The fishermen were sent to a hospital for treatment and are in stable condition, it added.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) expressed “indignation” over what it called Taiwan’s “seizure and arrest for no good reasons.”
“We demand Taiwan to immediately launch an investigation into this incident, release the crew and the boat as soon as possible, and prevent similar incidents,” TAO spokesman An Fengshan (安峰山) said.
The Mainland Affairs Council said China has imposed a moratorium on its fishing boats entering Taiwanese waters, but cannot stop them from violating the rules.
“Mainland fishing boats have violated Taiwanese law and repeatedly engaged in illegal fishing, seriously affecting Taiwanese fishermen’s rights and interests,” the council said.
The CGA said its patrols last year chased away 1,325 trespassing Chinese fishing boats and seized 108.
This year it had already driven away 346 Chinese fishing boats and taken 36 into custody as of the end of last month, the CGA added.
In January, the captain of a Fujian-based fishing boat, had three fingers severed while trying to prevent coast guard personnel inspecting his boat and in February, another Fujian-based boat rammed a CGA vessel.
The CGA said it has repeatedly requested that China rein in its fishing boats in accordance with a cross-strait agreement on joint efforts to combat crime, but the calls went unheeded.
It said it will continue to enforce the law.
Saturday’s seizure was not for “no good reason,” the CGA said.
The government has raised the maximum fine for trespassing to NT$10 million (US$331,323) in a bid to prevent incursions into the nation’s waters by foreign vessels.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)