Police officers from the two sides of the Taiwan Strait met for the first time yesterday on Kinmen to discuss cooperation in fighting cross-strait criminal operations.
An 11-member delegation from the police association in the southeastern Chinese port city of Xiamen arrived in Kinmen via a direct voyage early in the morning to attend the seminar.
The seminar was organized by Taiwan's Central Police University with the support of the Cabinet-level Mainland Affairs Council, the Coast Guard Administration, the Kinmen County Government and the Kinmen County Police Bureau.
Huang Demao (黃德茂), the president of the Xiamen Police Association, said at the seminar that since the direct Kinmen-to-Xiamen shipping service opened two years ago, it has become a shortcut for criminals dodging the law.
"More than 90 percent of criminal cases reported in the Xiamen area were related to Taiwan's underworld gangs, and many mainland criminals have also used Xiamen as a springboard to go to Kinmen and Taiwan in recent years," Huang said.
Worse still, Huang said, underworld rings on both sides have often colluded in gun smuggling, drug trafficking, currency counterfeiting, kidnapping and insurance fraud.
"Such operations have threatened public order on both sides of the Strait and posed serious challenges to law enforcement officers," Huang said, adding that the two sides should forge a collaborative mechanism to fight cross-border crime.
Speaking on the same occasion, Central Police University President Tsai Hui-teh (蔡德輝) said cross-strait anti-crime cooperation should start with collaboration between Kinmen and Xiamen.
"With Kinmen and Xiamen emerging as important conduits for cross-strait exchanges, law enforcement authorities in the two regions should cooperate closely in order to fight cross-border crime," Tsai said.
Eight papers on human smuggling and drug trafficking in the Kinmen and Xiamen areas as well as difficulties in law enforcement and other related subjects were read and discussed in the one-day seminar.
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