The Mainland Affairs Council yesterday confirmed that Taiwan and China are expected to sign a deal today to repatriate the remains of two Chinese who drowned when their unmarked boat capsized off Kinmen County.
The comments came hours after Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chen Yu-jen (陳玉珍) in a Facebook post geotagged in Shanghai said that the two governments had achieved a breakthrough in negotiations over the high-profile incident.
A Chinese boat — which bore no markings and carried a crew of four Chinese with no identification documents — capsized in February after it was chased by a Coast Guard Administration (CGA) patrol vessel.
Photo courtesy of the Coast Guard Administration
Two of the crew died, while two were rescued and briefly detained before being returned to China.
The council in a statement said that the two sides’ negotiators had agreed on the repatriation of the bodies and the boat, and that a meeting was scheduled for today at the Everrich Golden Lake Hotel in Kinmen.
Earlier, Chen said that Taiwan had struck a deal in a show of “humane spirit and goodwill” after months of contentious talks with Chinese officials.
“Through the hard work and the sincere hopes of many, the storm in the Taiwan Strait will pass to bring a future of sunshine,” she said.
According to CGA statements, the coast guard patrol vessel spotted the unauthorized boat during a patrol in restricted waters 1.1 nautical miles (2km) east of Beiding Island (北碇).
As coast guard vessels approached to carry out an inspection, the boat tried to flee by zigzagging across the water, but collided with one of its pursuers, causing it to capsize, the CGA said.
The two crew members rescued later identified themselves as Chinese, the CGA said, adding that it also recovered the boat and the two bodies.
Kinmen residents have reported seeing an increase in the number of Chinese sand dredgers taking sand from the ocean floor, as well as an increasing number of Chinese fishing boats just off the coast.
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
RSS