Seven Chinese fishing laborers working on a Taiwanese fishing boat have allegedly killed their chief engineer, a Taiwanese, and fled back to China, the Kaohsiung coast guard said yesterday.
The Taiwanese captain, who survived the violence, sailed back to Kaohsiung Port alone late Sunday night.
Prosecutors and coast guard officials said they are currently investigating the case and may seek assistance from authorities in China in pursuing the Chinese suspects.
According to the Kaohsiung coast guard, the fishing boat Tien Hung Yu (添宏裕) set off from Tungkang (東港), a fishing port in Pingtung County, on Oct. 14.
On their way out to sea, the captain, Lee Wen-tung (
On the night of Oct. 28, Captain Lee contacted the Tungkang fishery radio station and said that Tsai had been killed by the Chinese laborers.
According to the radio station, Lee told them that the violence occurred on Oct. 20, when the ship was around 470km southeast of the Philippine island of Mindanao.
The radio station told the Taipei Times that Lee said he was on the deck at that time and heard loud noises in the cabin.
When he went into the cabin the Chinese laborers told him that they had killed Tsai after a quarrel.
Lee said he saw the laborers throw a quilt-wrapped object -- which he believed to be Tsai's body -- into the sea, the coast guard said.
Lee said the Chinese laborers then hijacked the boat, taking it to waters off China's Fujian Province.
After robbing Lee of his property, the laborers called a Chinese boat to pick them up, the coast guard said, citing Lee's testimony.
Lee was not able to call the radio station for help until the seven Chinese laborers had fled.
He had been injured while being held by the laborers, but managed to sail back to coastal waters and was escorted ashore by two coast guard vessels, the coast guard said.
The coast guard said Lee has been taken to a hospital and is in stable condition.
The information acquired about the case so far has been primarily based on Lee's testimony, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors and coast guard officials continued to examine the boat and collect evidence last night.
Head prosecutor of the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors' Office, Shih Mao-lin (施茂林), said some bloodstains have been found on the boat but further authentication was needed to determine a link to Tsai.
Shih said the officiating prosecutor might seek China's cooperation in pursuit of the alleged Chinese murderers via Taiwan's non-official Straits Exchange Foundation (
An official from the Straits Exchange Foundation told the Taipei Times last evening that the organization had not yet received such a request.
Recently, there have been several incidents of at-sea violence between Taiwanese-hired Chinese laborers and Taiwanese fishermen.
On Sept. 2, several of 32 Chinese laborers on a Taiwanese fishing boat allegedly beat the ship's Taiwanese first and second mates as well as a Filipino sailor. They reportedly then forced them to jump into the sea and took the remaining three Taiwanese crew members on board hostage.
The mutiny ended with a raid by Kaohsiung coast guard.
The Chinese laborers said the incident had come about in reaction to their inhumane treatment by their Taiwanese employers.
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