A Chinese man who entered Taiwan illegally with his son on an inflatable boat in May was sentenced yesterday to eight months in prison.
Song Yuankun (宋元坤), 41, "severely undermined Taiwan’s national security and border integrity," the Taoyuan District Court said in its ruling, citing the Immigration Act (入出國及移民法).
He was arrested in Taiwan on May 16, one day after he and his 17-year-old son landed at beach in Taoyuan on an inflatable boat they had bought online on a Chinese shopping site, the indictment said.
Photo: Yu Jui-jen, Taipei Times
The father and son entered Taiwan at about 5:30pm on May 15 near the Guantang LNG Terminal in Taoyuan’s Guanyin District (觀音), the indictment said.
After they landed, they went to an ATM and used a UnionPay card to withdraw cash, which they used to buy dinner, but they soon ran out of money and turned themselves in to authorities at about 8am the following day, the indictment said.
Song had been working as laborer in China’s Yunnan Province, while his son was a hairdresser, the indictment said.
After his arrest, Song told the authorities that he saw Taiwan as a "prosperous" place and wanted his son to study here.
Song was sentenced to eight months in prison, while his 17-year-old son is being held in the Taipei Detention Center pending deportation, according to the court ruling yesterday, which can be appealed.
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
RSS