The captain and purser of a Taiwanese ship that was seized by Chinese authorities last year returned to Taiwan yesterday, after more than six months of detention by authorities in Fujian Province on smuggling charges.
Kuo Tai-sheng (郭台生), the captain of the Shin Hwa (新華), and the purser of the cargo ship, (陳依灼) arrived at Chiang Kai-shek International Airport yesterday afternoon aboard a CAL flight from Hong Kong, having been released from custody in Fuzhou.
The pair were met by mem-bers of their families at the airport, along with New Party lawmaker and vice presidential candidate, Elmer Feng (
Feng said on Friday that he had been contacted by officials from China's semi-official Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) with news that the pair were about to be released.
It was not clear why ARATS did not contact its Taiwan counterpart, the Straits Exchange Foundation, instead.
The Matsu-registered Shin Hwa was seized by Chinese authorities near the island and taken to the port of Fuzhou. Eight of the crew were released along with the ship in December and returned to Taiwan, but Kuo and Chen were kept under detention for "further investigation."
The incident was regarded by many in Taiwan as a reaction to President Lee Teng-hui's (李登輝) "special state-to-state" announcement on July 9, which infuriated leaders in Beijing.
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