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China holding three women for entering the country illegally

Three female Taiwanese tourists have been in detention in China for more than two months after being charged with illegal entry into the country and despite paying fines for the offense, according to the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday.

The SEF confirmed the detention of the three in a news report screened at noon yesterday on a Chinese-language TV station.

Secretary-General Shi Hwei-yow (許惠祐) told reporters shortly after the news broke that the SEF had not made the case public earlier because "we want to resolve the matter smoothly."

The TV report said that three tourists traveling to the outlying island of Kinmen had apparently believed the advice of operators of an illegal boat service that they could lawfully obtain Chinese tourist visas on arrival in the Chinese port city of Xiamen, about 2km from Kinmen.

The report recorded Shi as saying, "We were notified at the end of February by the family of one of the detainees, which had been asked by the detainee to help pay the fine."

He added that the SEF had then contacted the Taiwanese businessmen's association in Xiamen to ask them to help by establishing contact with the Chinese authorities. The businessmen's association had attempted to make such contact but had been rebuffed.

The director of the SEF's tourism services department, Liu Keh-hsin (劉克鑫), confirmed that there were companies in Kinmen running illegal boat services to Xiamen for sight-seers.

The three have been detained in Xiamen since Feb. 1, having been charged with illegal entry and fined a total of 8,000 yuan (NT$64,000).

The three are Chen Mei-gui (陳美貴), Hong Li-kuan (洪麗寬) and Jan Ya-chi (詹雅棋). All of them were described as being middle-aged.

According to the SEF's Liu, the three have paid their fine but have not yet been released. He said Chinese police usually release Taiwanese tourists who don't have travel permits after fining them and detaining them for 15 days.

Although the "mini three links," established last January, opened the door for residents of Kinmen and Matsu to travel to Xiamen without restrictions, residents of Taiwan proper must still obtain authorization from the governments of both sides to enter China.

Johnnason Liu (劉德勳), the MAC vice chairman-designate and legal affairs head, called on China to release the three as soon as possible.

He said the SEF had sent a letter requesting the assistance of its Chinese counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS, 海協會) on March 13, but received no response.

Liu and Shi both reminded residents of Taiwan proper that it is illegal for them to travel directly from Kinmen to Xiamen without getting permission from the government.

MAC and SEF officials stressed that they were "working diligently" to communicate with the Chinese side via "all possible channels."
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