Coast guard officials and Hualien prosecutors yesterday said they found evidence that the Panamanian freighter Tosa was the ship involved in a collision that capsized the Taiwanese fishing vessel Hsing Tong-chuan 86 on Friday.
Coast guard officials said they escorted the Panamanian freighter to Hualien for further investigation.
The freighter arrived at Hualien Harbor about 3pm yesterday and is now under investigation by Hualien prosecutors.
Hualien Coast Guard Deputy Chief Yang Chao-ching (楊朝卿) said they spent nearly a day in contact with the Tosa’s owners through diplomatic channels before escorting the freighter to Hualien for investigation.
Investigators said they discovered fishing gear believed to belong to the Taiwanese boat that must have become entangled with the ship during the collision.
Hsing Tong-chuan’s captain Ho Hsi-chuan (何西川) and chief engineer Hsu Chung-wen (許聰文) remained missing at press time yesterday.
Taiwanese and Japanese coast guard personnel continued their search for the missing men near the disputed Diaoyutai Islands, a fishery official said yesterday.
The 99-tonne boat, based in Suao, Ilan County, capsized 37km west of the Diaoyutai Islands early on Friday.
Eleven of the 13 crew manning the vessel were rescued by fishing boats operating nearby.
Officials from the Maritime Patrol Directorate General under the Coast Guard Administration said a Japanese diver combed the interior of the sunken ship on Friday evening but did not find the missing men.
Coast guard personnel from Taiwan and Japan will continue searching during the 72-hour “golden time” for rescue, the officials said.
At first, three ships were suspected of involvement in the incident and the Panamanian tanker initially refused to put into Hualien Harbor for investigation, continuing its voyage to Singapore escorted by a coast guard vessel.
The two other ships — the Fratzis Star of the Marshall Islands and the Hong Kong-registered CHS World — were also stopped, but were allowed to continue after radar data showed they were far from the collision site at the time.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials said Japan had dispatched five speed boats, two helicospters and three divers to assist in the search and rescue mission, while four Taiwanese coast guard ships and helicopters from the National Airborne Service Corps were also mobilized.
The rescued Hsing Tong Chuan crew members include one Taiwanese fisherman, two Chinese, six Indonesians and two Filipinos.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday voiced dissatisfaction with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans- Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), whose latest meeting, concluded earlier the same day, appeared not to address the country’s application. In a statement, MOFA said the CPTPP commission had "once again failed to fairly process Taiwan’s application," attributing the inaction to the bloc’s "succumbing to political pressure," without elaborating. Taiwan submitted its CPTPP application under the name "Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu" on Sept. 22, 2021 -- less than a week after China
THE GOOD WORD: More than 100 colleges on both sides of the Pacific will work together to bring students to Taiwan so they can learn Mandarin where it is spoken A total of 102 universities from Taiwan and the US are collaborating in a push to promote Taiwan as the first-choice place to learn Mandarin, with seven Mandarin learning centers stood up in the US to train and support teachers, the Foundation for International Cooperation in Higher Education of Taiwan (FICHET) said. At the annual convention of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages held over the weekend in New Orleans, Louisiana, a Taiwan Pavilion was jointly run by 17 representative teams from the FICHET, the Overseas Community Affairs Council, the Steering Committee for the Test of Proficiency-Huayu, the
A home-style restaurant opened by a Taiwanese woman in Quezon City in Metro Manila has been featured in the first-ever Michelin Guide honoring exceptional restaurants in the Philippines. The restaurant, Fong Wei Wu (豐味屋), was one of 74 eateries to receive a “Michelin Selected” honor in the guide, while one restaurant received two Michelin stars, eight received one star and 25 were awarded a “Bib Gourmand.” The guide, which was limited to restaurants in Metro Manila and Cebu, was published on Oct. 30. In an interview, Feng Wei Wu’s owner and chef, Linda, said that as a restaurateur in her 60s, receiving an
MORE RETALIATION: China would adopt a long-term pressure strategy to prevent other countries or future prime ministers following in Sanae Takaichi’s steps, an academic said Taiwan should maintain communications with Japan, as Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is to lead a revision of security documents, Taiwanese academics said yesterday. Tensions have risen between Japan and China over remarks by Takaichi earlier this month that the use of force against Taiwan would constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan. Prospect Foundation president Lai I-chung (賴怡忠) yesterday said Takaichi’s stance regarding Taiwan is the same as past Japanese prime ministers, but her position is clearer than that of her predecessors Fumio Kishida and Shigeru Ishiba. Although Japan views a “Taiwan contingency” as a “survival-threatening situation,” which would allow its military to
RSS