New Party lawmaker and vice presidential candidate Elmer Feng (
His comments came a day after the return of Kuo Tai-sheng (
"What has the KMT done to secure their release?" Feng asked, adding that President Lee Teng-hui's (
Officials from the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) had previously tried to coordinate the release of the seamen in coordination with its Beijing counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS). But the seizure occurred after Lee's "state-to-state" remarks had soured relations between the two sides.
The SEF sent several letters to ARATS regarding the men's detention, but received little information in return.
New Party officials have taken special interest in the case, and have sent a number of delegations to China to talk with officials and appeal for the crew's release.
Feng dismissed the cross-strait policies of both KMT presidential candidate Lien Chan (連戰) and the DPP's Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), while positioning the New Party as the only party able to "replace resistance [to China] with dialogue."
The Kaohsiung-registered Shin Hwa was scheduled to arrive in Tungyin (東引), an islet along the east coast of Matsu last July when it was detained by Chinese authorities and towed to a port in Fujian.
The vessel was en route to deliver 700 tonnes of supplies to Matsu -- some of it for military use -- ?when it was seized on charges of smuggling.
Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense said it had contracted the Shin Hwa to deliver goods including rice, gasoline and cooking oil, and that there were no military documents or personnel on board.
Eight crew members were released in December, but Kuo and Chen remained under detention.
Kuo told reporters yesterday that they were released because the Chinese authorities did not file any charges against them.
"The way they handled the case seemed kind of absurd. We had no idea why we were detained and they did not explain the situation to us. Then we are let off -- just like that," Kuo said.
Feng accused the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) of obstructing the New Party's efforts in securing the seamen's release.
"While we were trying to secure their release, the government was saying unnecessary, provocative things to upset Beijing," Feng said.
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
‘SOMETHING SPECIAL’: Donald Trump vowed to reward his supporters, while President William Lai said he was confident the Taiwan-US partnership would continue Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the US early yesterday morning, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts. With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency. As of press time last night, The Associated Press had Trump on 277 electoral college votes to 224 for US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee, with Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Michigan and Nevada yet to finalize results. He had 71,289,216 votes nationwide, or 51 percent, while Harris had 66,360,324 (47.5 percent). “We’ve been through so