A Philippine crew member who allegedly killed and attacked crewmates aboard a Taiwanese fishing vessel in the Indian Ocean last month has been arrested by the coast guard, but six foreign crew members are still missing, the Fisheries Agency said yesterday.
The 255-tonne Wen Peng had 24 crew members onboard — three Taiwanese, 10 Filipinos and 11 Indonesians — when a conflict broke out on Feb. 20 as the vessel sailed about 900 nautical miles (1,665km) off the south coast of Sri Lanka, the agency said.
The boat’s chief officer allegedly killed one Filipino and one Indonesian, and ordered some of their crewmates to jump into the water, it said.
Photo courtesy of the Coast Guard Administration
As of Feb. 22, the Taiwanese — the captain, the chief engineer and an observer for the agency — as well as 12 other crew members had been rescued by Taiwanese vessels Shang Feng No. 3 and Hung Fu No. 88, with the latter asked to help monitor the Wen Peng with the suspect onboard until the coast guard arrived, it said.
Eight officials from the agency and the Coast Guard Administration on Feb. 23 flew to Sri Lanka and boarded another Taiwanese vessel, the Chao Feng No. 277, which reached the area at 8:30am on Saturday, it said.
Coast guard personnel spent about 13 hours negotiating with the suspect, as the Wen Peng’s cabin door was locked from inside and the boat’s rails were electrified, the coast guard said.
At 9:20pm, the suspect surrendered, jumping overboard and swimming to the Chao Feng, where he was arrested, it said.
Coast guard patrol boat Hsun Hu No. 8, which departed from Kaohsiung on Feb. 21, yesterday met with Chao Feng No. 277 and Hung Fu No. 88 at 6:20pm and took over the suspect, the coast guard said.
Six crew members — one Filipino and five Indonesians — who were reportedly forced to jump into the sea have been missing for a long time, Fisheries Agency Deputy Director-General Lin Kuo-ping (林國平) said, adding that rescue operations might be called off, as 72 hours have passed since they went missing.
CROSS-STRAIT COLLABORATION: The new KMT chairwoman expressed interest in meeting the Chinese president from the start, but she’ll have to pay to get in Beijing allegedly agreed to let Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) around the Lunar New Year holiday next year on three conditions, including that the KMT block Taiwan’s arms purchases, a source said yesterday. Cheng has expressed interest in meeting Xi since she won the KMT’s chairmanship election in October. A source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a consensus on a meeting was allegedly reached after two KMT vice chairmen visited China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Song Tao (宋濤) in China last month. Beijing allegedly gave the KMT three conditions it had to
STAYING ALERT: China this week deployed its largest maritime show of force to date in the region, prompting concern in Taipei and Tokyo, which Beijing has brushed off Deterring conflict over Taiwan is a priority, the White House said in its National Security Strategy published yesterday, which also called on Japan and South Korea to increase their defense spending to help protect the first island chain. Taiwan is strategically positioned between Northeast and Southeast Asia, and provides direct access to the second island chain, with one-third of global shipping passing through the South China Sea, the report said. Given the implications for the US economy, along with Taiwan’s dominance in semiconductors, “deterring a conflict over Taiwan, ideally by preserving military overmatch, is a priority,” it said. However, the strategy also reiterated
‘BALANCE OF POWER’: Hegseth said that the US did not want to ‘strangle’ China, but to ensure that none of Washington’s allies would be vulnerable to military aggression Washington has no intention of changing the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Saturday, adding that one of the US military’s main priorities is to deter China “through strength, not through confrontation.” Speaking at the annual Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California, Hegseth outlined the US Department of Defense’s priorities under US President Donald Trump. “First, defending the US homeland and our hemisphere. Second, deterring China through strength, not confrontation. Third, increased burden sharing for us, allies and partners. And fourth, supercharging the US defense industrial base,” he said. US-China relations under
The Chien Feng IV (勁蜂, Mighty Hornet) loitering munition is on track to enter flight tests next month in connection with potential adoption by Taiwanese and US armed forces, a government source said yesterday. The kamikaze drone, which boasts a range of 1,000km, debuted at the Taipei Aerospace and Defense Technology Exhibition in September, the official said on condition of anonymity. The Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology and US-based Kratos Defense jointly developed the platform by leveraging the engine and airframe of the latter’s MQM-178 Firejet target drone, they said. The uncrewed aerial vehicle is designed to utilize an artificial intelligence computer
RSS