Ex-Army officer held in China since March allowed to return

Kaohsiung, Aug. 2 (CNA) A former Kinmen-based Army officer rescued by the Chinese Coast Guard in mid-March has been allowed to return home on Aug. 7, and a Taiwanese official hoped Friday for cooperation across the Taiwan Strait in rescue at sea missions.

The release of the former officer held by Chinese authorities for more than four months was announced Thursday evening by Legislator Chen Yu-jen (陳玉珍), who said in a statement that she will travel with the family of the recently discharged officer on Aug. 7 to bring him home.

On Friday, Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲), head of the Ocean Affairs Council in Taiwan, said in a Facebook post that she contacted Chen, who represents Kinmen, the Kinmen County government, the Red Cross Society's Kinmen branch and the Haiyin Temple on Thursday to thank them for their efforts in helping negotiate the release.

Kuan said she has instructed people at her agency to reestablish contact on law enforcement cooperation across the Taiwan Strait, because search and rescue at the sea requires the two sides to work together.

The responsibility of Taiwan's Coast Guard Administration (CGA) under the council to maintain order at sea is also a shared goal between the two sides, she said.

The former Army officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was serving in Kinmen when he and a civilian were rescued by the Chinese Coast Guard after drifting into Chinese waters off Fujian Province during a fishing trip on March 17.

The civilian was returned to Kinmen on March 23, but, according to China's Taiwan Affairs Office, Hu was detained because he was not forthcoming about his military status.

In early May, the Army Command Headquarters approved an application filed by Hu's family for a voluntary military discharge on his behalf, and Chen accompanied Hu's family to visit him in the Chinese city of Quanzhou on June 22.

According to Chen's statement, the negotiation for Hu's return was hampered by a standoff over a deadly chase between a Chinese speedboat and a Taiwanese Coast Guard vessel in waters around Kinmen on Feb. 14 that left two Chinese nationals dead.

Taiwanese and Chinese representatives reached a settlement over the incident at a meeting in Kinmen on July 30.

Terms of the settlement were not made public, but on the same day, CGA Director-General Chang Chung-lung (張忠龍) again apologized for the failure to record evidence during the incident and for the suffering endured by the families of the victims during a memorial service in Kinmen.