Coast guard personnel on Saturday arrested a Chinese man after he swam from China to Kinmen County, the Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) Kinmen-Matsu-Penghu Branch said yesterday.
The man was the second Chinese in a week to have been caught illegally entering the nation by swimming to Kinmen.
On Aug. 6, a man from Shandong Province was caught after swimming for seven hours from China to Kinmen, helped by three children’s swimming rings, the branch said.
In Saturday’s incident, military personnel stationed on Lesser Kinmen, also known as Lieyu (烈嶼), reported seeing an inflatable object at sea about 500m away from a maritime patrol station and asked the Kinmen Coast Guard patrol squad to help identify it, the squad said.
Coast guard personnel spotted a suspicious person and waited at locations where he could land, it said.
When he approached the shore, coast guard personnel arrested him, it added.
The man, surnamed Wang (王), was found carrying only four PET bottles for floatation and two packages of instant noodles, the squad said.
Born in 1976, Wang is registered as a resident of Anhui Province.
During questioning, he said he departed from Zhangzhou in China’s Fujian Province at 10pm on Friday and swam to an unknown islet to rest.
Wang then departed from the islet to Kinmen at 10am on Saturday, the squad added.
Lesser Kinmen is 6km from the Chinese coast and the main island of Kinmen is a few kilometers farther away.
Wang said he had no regular job and made a living by reselling items collected from trash, squad deputy head Wang Jung-chung (王榮忠) said.
The swimmer said he did not want to live in China and intended to build a new life in a new environment to escape Beijing’s control.
He bought four 2-liter bottles of soda, made a raft with the empty bottles and fashioned a paddleboard from items he collected from the trash, the squad said.
The case was referred to the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office for investigation on suspicion that Wang contravened the Immigration Act (入出國移民法) and the National Security Act (國家安全法).
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is unlikely to attempt an invasion of Taiwan during US president-elect Donald Trump’s time in office, Taiwanese and foreign academics said on Friday. Trump is set to begin his second term early next year. Xi’s ambition to establish China as a “true world power” has intensified over the years, but he would not initiate an invasion of Taiwan “in the near future,” as his top priority is to maintain the regime and his power, not unification, Tokyo Woman’s Christian University distinguished visiting professor and contemporary Chinese politics expert Akio Takahara said. Takahara made the comment at a
Upon its completion next year, the new Tamkang Bridge (淡江大橋) in New Taipei City is to be an important landmark in Taiwan, alongside Taipei 101, Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shi-kai (陳世凱) said today. The bridge is scheduled to be completed in December next year and open to the public in the first half of 2026, connecting New Taipei City’s Tamsui (淡水) and Bali (八里) districts. It is an asymmetric single-tower suspension bridge, nearly 70 stories tall, designed by world-famous architect Zaha Hadid. The bridge aims to alleviate traffic in Tamsui and on the Guandu Bridge (關渡大橋), in addition to increasing the
EXERCISES: A 2022 article by a Chinese intelligence expert identified at least six People’s Liberation Army assault boats hidden inside the Hong Kong-flagged ship A Hong Kong-flagged cargo ship that had been docked at Taichung Port and which previously took part in Chinese military exercises departed from the port on Saturday, the Taiwan International Ports Corp’s Taichung branch said yesterday. The statement came in response to a post on the social media platform X by Taiwan-based journalist Chris Horton that said the ship, the SCSC Fortune, had been docked at the port since Tuesday and questioned whether Taiwan has any rules regarding foreign civilian vessels that have participated in People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises. Horton referenced a 2022 article by Chinese intelligence expert Rod Lee that
PROBLEMATIC: Popular hotpot restaurant chains were among the list of restaurants that failed the inspection and have been ordered to remove bad ingredients The Taipei Department of Health’s latest inspection of hotpot ingredients in hotpot restaurants resulted in a 16.7 percent failure rate. Eight vegetables had excessive pesticide residue and two other items had aflatoxin and excessive preservatives. As the weather is getting colder, more people eat at hotpot restaurants so a random inspection of ingredients was conducted in October to ensure food safety, the department said. Food and Drug Division Director Lin Kuan-chen (林冠蓁) said 60 different ingredients were tested: 15 high-risk vegetables, 15 processed food items, 10 soy-based food items, five meat items, five lamb items, five seafood items and five peanut powder
RSS