The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) today called on China to return the crew and explain the seizure of a Taiwanese fishing boat sailing in Chinese-controlled waters last night.
The Penghu-registered vessel was catching squid off Kinmen County when it was boarded by the China Coast Guard, CGA Deputy Director-General Hsieh Ching-chin (謝慶欽) told a news conference.
The Da Jin Man No. 88 (大進滿88) was fishing 23.7 nautical miles (43.9km) east-northeast of Liaoluo Bay (料羅灣) and 17.5 nautical miles from Taiwan’s restricted waters off Kinmen, he said.
Photo courtesy of the Coast Guard Administration
After receiving a notice at 8:14pm, the CGA said it sent three ships to rescue the vessel, Hsieh said.
One of the ships was intercepted by the Chinese Coast Guard vessels at 9:14pm, as the CGA called for the release of the Da Jin Man No. 88, he added.
However, it called off the mission to “avoid escalating tensions” after it detected the approach of four other China Coast Guard ships, he said.
It is currently the closed season for fishing in China.
There were two Taiwanese and three Indonesian nationals on the boat, Hsieh said, calling on China to release the crew according to set procedures, explain its reasoning and refrain from using political means to handle the situation.
As the incident occurred in Chinese-controlled waters, it was outside of the area regularly monitored by the CGA, Hsieh said, adding that fishing associations would be advised to avoid operating in Chinese waters during the fishing moratorium period.
The China Coast Guard also harassed Japanese fishing vessels near the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) yesterday, Hsieh said, reminding Taiwanese sailors to remain vigilant and vowing to increase patrols.
Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan would issue a decision at 8pm on whether to cancel work and school tomorrow due to forecasted heavy rain, Keelung Mayor Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said today. Hsieh told reporters that absent some pressing reason, the four northern cities would announce the decision jointly at 8pm. Keelung is expected to receive between 300mm and 490mm of rain in the period from 2pm today through 2pm tomorrow, Central Weather Administration data showed. Keelung City Government regulations stipulate that school and work can be canceled if rain totals in mountainous or low-elevation areas are forecast to exceed 350mm in
EVA Airways president Sun Chia-ming (孫嘉明) and other senior executives yesterday bowed in apology over the death of a flight attendant, saying the company has begun improving its health-reporting, review and work coordination mechanisms. “We promise to handle this matter with the utmost responsibility to ensure safer and healthier working conditions for all EVA Air employees,” Sun said. The flight attendant, a woman surnamed Sun (孫), died on Friday last week of undisclosed causes shortly after returning from a work assignment in Milan, Italy, the airline said. Chinese-language media reported that the woman fell ill working on a Taipei-to-Milan flight on Sept. 22
COUNTERMEASURE: Taiwan was to implement controls for 47 tech products bound for South Africa after the latter downgraded and renamed Taipei’s ‘de facto’ offices The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is still reviewing a new agreement proposed by the South African government last month to regulate the status of reciprocal representative offices, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. Asked about the latest developments in a year-long controversy over Taiwan’s de facto representative office in South Africa, Lin during a legislative session said that the ministry was consulting with legal experts on the proposed new agreement. While the new proposal offers Taiwan greater flexibility, the ministry does not find it acceptable, Lin said without elaborating. The ministry is still open to resuming retaliatory measures against South
1.4nm WAFERS: While TSMC is gearing up to expand its overseas production, it would also continue to invest in Taiwan, company chairman and CEO C.C. Wei said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) has applied for permission to construct a new plant in the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區), which it would use for the production of new high-speed wafers, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council, which supervises three major science parks in Taiwan, confirmed that the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau had received an application on Friday from TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, to commence work on the new A14 fab. A14 technology, a 1.4 nanometer (nm) process, is designed to drive artificial intelligence transformation by enabling faster computing and greater power
RSS