China returned two Taiwanese coast guardsmen yesterday, a day after they were abducted at sea by Chinese fishermen while trying to settle a dispute over a collision between a Taiwanese and a Chinese vessel, officials said.
The two, Liao Ching-lin (廖慶麟) and Chen Hou-chang (陳厚昌), appeared to be uninjured as they arrived on Taiwan's outlying Matsu island, just off China's southeastern coast.
Local TV showed the men, dressed in bright orange uniforms, getting into an ambulance for a medical checkup.
A Taiwanese fishing boat was allowed to take them from China to Matsu.
Such China-Taiwan incidents can be tense. Disputes over fishing rights and human smuggling often arise in the Taiwan Strait.
The Chinese fishing crew abducted the men Thursday afternoon after the Chinese vessel collided with a Taiwanese fishing boat and sank, an unidentified coast guard official told TVBS cable news.
The Chinese boat's crew of 15 boarded the Taiwanese vessel and demanded compensation before eventually commandeering the boat. Coast guard personnel boarded the vessel to help settle the dispute, the official said.
One of the coast guardsmen "jumped aboard because at that point our fishermen had already been abducted," the official said.
"Our colleague jumped aboard to help negotiate. As soon as he went aboard, he was abducted," the official said.
The other coast guard member then jumped aboard and was also abducted, the TV report said.
The five-member fishing crew from the Taiwanese boat escaped in a life raft, TVBS reported.
The Taiwanese Red Cross helped arrange the coast guard officials' return. The Chinese fishing crew asked for a ransom of NT$80 million for the men's release but later gave up the demand.
The coast guardsmen said they were well treated after they reached Fujian. Arrangements were made for them to stay in a hotel there.
Chinese officials were polite to them and, after finding out that they had eaten little since their abduction, went out to buy noodles for them, Chen said.
Taiwan's semi-official Straits Exchange Foundation, which deals with cross-strait affairs, wrote a letter to its Chinese counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait, urging China to make sure the coast guard officials remained safe.
China's Taiwan Affairs Office refused to comment on the incident, saying its spokesman wasn't immediately available.
The Taiwanese fishing boat is expected to be returned at an unspecified later date.
Last September, coast guardsman Chiang Shao-nan (
He was released a day after the abduction.
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