An investigation into the mysterious disappearance of the crew of a Taiwanese fishing boat found drifting off the Australian coast four months ago is nearly complete, officials said yesterday.
Australian investigators have been trying to piece together the movements of the High Aim 6 between Oct. 31, when it left the port of Liuchiu, and Jan. 8, when it was boarded by navy personnel 250km off the west coast of Broome in Western Australia.
The first line of enquiry was that the Taiwanese-owned Indonesian-flagged fishing boat ran out of fuel, leaving those on board with the option of drifting out into the Indian Ocean or taking to the lifeboats and heading for Australia.
But there was plenty of fuel on board, as well as food and water, and no evidence that lifeboats were launched.
Another thought was that the 20m vessel was boarded by pirates late in December after the owners spoke by radio telephone to the captain.
But there was no sign of a struggle, and hijackers would have made off with the modern long-line fishing boat.
Personal belongings were found on the 130-tonne vessel. Seven toothbrushes indicated that, as well as the Taiwanese captain and first mate, there were at least five Indonesian crew.
A catch of rotting fish in the hold was proof that the ship was a legitimate fishing vessel.
Geoff Rohan, of the Australian Fisheries Management Authority, suggested the High Aim 6 might have drifted crewless from the US' Marshall Islands, its last known location.
A search of 24,000km2 in the area where the boat was intercepted failed to find any trace of the captain and crew.
Among the oddities is that when the High Aim 6 was first sighted, the motor was running and the propeller turning. But the motor was not running when the ship was boarded five days later.
The boat is in Broome harbor, Australian authorities unable to declare it a wreck or dispose of it because no law had been broken.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift