A professional Taiwanese soldier who went missing from his post in outlying Kinmen County on Thursday is in China, but it is too early to conclude whether he deserted, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday.
The council was notified of the soldier’s whereabouts by Chinese authorities, who are in the process of returning him to Taiwan, MAC Minister Chiu Tai-san (邱太三) said, later adding that the information was received on Friday evening.
Taiwan would follow procedures similar to those for returning Chinese nationals found illegally entering Taiwan, Chiu said.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
The two sides have a mechanism for communicating on issues such as emergency response and fighting crime, he added.
Asked about speculation that the soldier is a deserter, Chiu said that that was a legal determination that could only be made by the Ministry of National Defense.
The soldier, identified only as Private First Class Chen (陳), 26, was reported missing after not attending roll call on Thursday morning on Erdan Island (二膽), a small island in Kinmen’s Lieyu Township (烈嶼) that is less than 5km from China.
After Chen went missing, the army’s Kinmen Defense Command contacted his family and created a task force to search for him.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Jessica Chen (陳玉珍) on Friday evening said that she had confirmed with contacts in China that Private First Class Chen was safe in Xiamen.
Chen yesterday said that the reasons for the soldier’s disappearance remained unclear, as he was not in debt or involved in any personal disputes, and had behaved normally while visiting his family on Taiwan proper over the Feb. 25 to 28 long weekend.
Under the Criminal Code of the Armed Forces (陸海空軍刑法), a soldier who is absent from their post without leave for more than six days can be imprisoned for up to three years, detained, or fined up to NT$300,000.
A soldier who deserts or tries to evade military service for longer can be imprisoned for up to five years, or for at least seven years if they take military-issued weapons or ammunition with them.
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