(Taipei) Taiwan has strengthened its security measures, its prime minister said Tuesday following the arrest of a Chinese man who illegally entered the island aboard a small boat and was later identified as a former officer. Marine.
Security forces were ordered to “immediately strengthen protective measures,” Prime Minister Cho Jung-tai told reporters.
“The government as well as all national security units and teams are very attentive” to this incident, he added, specifying that an investigation was underway. “National security cannot be neglected for a single minute,” he continued.
The Taiwanese coast guard arrested the man on Sunday after a collision between his boat and other boats on the Tamsui River which connects the capital Taipei to the northern coast of the island.
Aged 60, he told the coastguard that he wanted to “defect”, according to the semi-official Central News Agency.
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The Taiwanese coast guard arrested the man on Sunday after a collision between his boat and other boats on the Tamsui River which connects the capital Taipei to the northern coast of the island.
According to Taiwan’s Minister of Maritime Affairs, Kuan Bi-ling, the man was a captain in the Chinese Navy and was one of 18 so-called defectors who arrived in the past year or so and who all said they admired “Taiwan’s democratic way of life.” .
“We often encounter this kind of speech […] We do not believe it and we will investigate all aspects of the matter,” she told reporters.
“What’s different this time […], is that the man is more refined and better dressed with a more particular experience,” she added, referring to her service in the Navy. “We do not exclude that it is a test.”
Potential Chinese spies
Taiwan is constantly on guard for potential Chinese spies.
In April, a father and son were sentenced to eight years in prison for collecting confidential military information and attempting to set up a spy “organization” on behalf of Beijing.
The coast guard said the boat was spotted around 9 a.m. local time (9 p.m. Eastern Time) about 11 kilometers off the coast of Tamsui, a district on the outskirts of Taipei.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Coast Guard deputy chief Hsieh Ching-chin explained that staff would be held responsible for failing to intercept the boat due to “error of judgment and negligence.” .
He said a radar operator incorrectly judged it to be a local fishing boat and it was not inspected.
In 2021, a Chinese man was arrested in the central city of Taichung after successfully crossing the Taiwan Strait aboard an inflatable boat. According to police, he said he came to Taiwan to seek “freedom and democracy.” He was deported to China in 2022, according to local media.
China considers the autonomously governed island of Taiwan to be part of its territory and says it is ready to reconquer it by force if necessary.
Tensions across the Taiwan Strait have increased since the inauguration on May 20 of new Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te.