Family members of the skipper of a Suao-based fishing boat missing since Nov. 10 urged the government yesterday not to call off a search for the crew of the boat.
Accompanied by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Chin-teh (陳金德) at a news conference, the wife of Chih Yu-hsin (池玉信), the skipper of the Chin Hsieh Yi No. 166, called on governmental agencies, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), the Coast Guard Administration and the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), to continue their efforts to locate Chih and eight crew members.
Chih's uncle, a veteran sailor, said the likelihood that the Chin Hsieh Yi No. 166 sank or collided with another vessel was extremely low as the boat was equipped with advanced radar, navigation and communications systems.
Chih's wife and uncle said they had not ruled out the possibility that Chih was abducted and even murdered by his crew -- made up of six Chinese and two Indonesians -- and that the crew sailed the vessel to China or Indonesia.
Also present at the news conference, Lin Chin-you, an inspector with the CGA Department of Coastal Control, said the Chin Hsieh Yi No. 166 departed Suao Port on Nov. 8 and last made radio contact with other Taiwanese fishing boats on Nov. 10.
Lin said that the CGA began its search on Nov. 12 immediately after being informed that the boat was missing.
He added that fishing gear belonging to the Chin Hsieh Yi No. 166 had been spotted some 48km south of Tiaoyutai Island and that Japan then dispatched aircraft and patrol boats for three days to help search in adjacent areas.
Nothing else belonging to the boat was discovered.
The coast guard will continue conducting a search for the Chin Hsieh Yi No. 166 and its crew, Lin said.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
EVERYONE’S ISSUE: Kim said that during a visit to Taiwan, she asked what would happen if China attacked, and was told that the global economy would shut down Taiwan is critical to the global economy, and its defense is a “here and now” issue, US Representative Young Kim said during a roundtable talk on Taiwan-US relations on Friday. Kim, who serves on the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, held a roundtable talk titled “Global Ties, Local Impact: Why Taiwan Matters for California,” at Santiago Canyon College in Orange County, California. “Despite its small size and long distance from us, Taiwan’s cultural and economic importance is felt across our communities,” Kim said during her opening remarks. Stanford University researcher and lecturer Lanhee Chen (陳仁宜), lawyer Lin Ching-chi
A pro-Russia hacker group has launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the Taiwanese government in retaliation for President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments suggesting that China should have a territorial dispute with Russia, an information security company said today. The hacker group, NoName057, recently launched an HTTPs flood attack called “DDoSia” targeting Taiwanese government and financial units, Radware told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). Local tax bureaus in New Taipei City, Keelung, Hsinchu and Taoyuan were mentioned by the hackers. Only the Hsinchu Local Tax Bureau site appeared to be down earlier in the day, but was back
RSS