Taiwan-China discussions on speedboat incident rescheduled to Tuesday

Taipei, July 28 (CNA) Officials from Taiwan and China will meet on Tuesday to discuss the Kinmen speedboat incident after the original meeting set for July 24 was postponed due to Typhoon Gaemi, Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said Sunday.

Both sides have agreed to hold the rescheduled meeting at Golden Lake Hotel in outlying Kinmen County, the original location. They will discuss outstanding issues relating to the incident which left two Chinese nationals dead on Feb. 14, the MAC said in a statement.

The representatives of the two deceased sailors' families will arrive in Kinmen on Monday to ensure smooth and thorough talks, the statement added.

Also on Monday, "personnel from both sides will inspect the meeting venue and discuss and confirm the schedule of activities for the next day (Tuesday)," the MAC said, without mentioning the names or positions of the officials who will attend the meeting.

Since negotiations over the incident were suspended in March, the Ocean Affairs Council and the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) continued communicating through designated channels with the Chinese authorities, the statement read.

Both sides were originally scheduled to meet on July 24, but the impact of Typhoon Gaemi led to the suspension of cross-strait ferry services, preventing the family members of the two deceased Chinese sailors and the delegation of Chinese officials from reaching Kinmen, the MAC said in a previous statement.

The MAC statement on Sunday came after local newspaper Liberty Times reported earlier in the day that the meeting had been rescheduled and that a consensus agreement would be signed.

The Chinese side will be represented by a director-level representative from the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), China's semi-official body handling technical and business matters with Taiwan.

The Taiwanese side will include officials from the MAC, the CGA, and ARATS's counterpart, the Straits Exchange Foundation, according to the report.

The report also quoted a source familiar with the matter saying that if everything proceeds smoothly, the bodies of the two deceased Chinese sailors and the speedboat involved in the incident will be returned to China the same day as the meeting.

Consolation payments will also be given to the families of the two deceased, the report said.

The Kinmen speedboat incident occurred on Feb. 14 when Taiwan's Coast Guard pursued a Chinese speedboat that entered prohibited waters off the coast of Kinmen.

According to the Coast Guard, the unnamed and unregistered Chinese boat with four people on board refused a request to board and inspect it, and later fled, setting off a high-speed chase which ended when the vessel made a sudden turn.

The speedboat collided with a CGA patrol vessel and capsized in waters near Kinmen while being pursued, leading to the deaths of two Chinese crew members.

The other two Chinese nationals who survived the incident returned to China on Feb. 20, while the bodies of the deceased crew and the speedboat remained in Kinmen for further investigation.

The incident raised tensions around Kinmen, located less than 10 kilometers off the coast of the Chinese city of Xiamen.

Officials representing the two sides held several rounds of talks in February and March but failed to reach an agreement on matters relating to the case, including how to compensate the families of the deceased.

The Chinese representative in the previous rounds of negotiations, Quanzhou City Taiwan Affairs Office Deputy Director Li Zhaohui (李朝暉), blamed the Taiwanese authorities for failing to provide an acceptable explanation of what happened and for creating obstacles to the demands from the families of the deceased.

However, the CGA has issued a statement saying that the Chinese side made demands that did not comply with Taiwan's legal system, which made it impossible for both sides to reach a consensus.