Chinese speedboat man indicted for entering Taiwan illegally

Taipei, Aug. 14 (CNA) A Chinese man who was arrested by Taiwan's Coast Guard after driving a speedboat near the mouth of the Tamsui River in New Taipei in June has been indicted for illegally entering Taiwan, the Shilin District Prosecutors Office said Wednesday.

The man is suspected of violating both the Act Governing Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area and the Immigration Act for having entered Taiwan without having official permits, according to Shilin prosecutors.

The prosecutors office said the man, who is currently being held in a detention center by the National Immigration Agency's New Taipei specialized operation brigade, was handed over to the Shilin District Court for trial on Wednesday morning.

The Chinese national, who said he was restricted from leaving the country for online speech issues, bought a speedboat for 36,000 Chinese yuan (US$5,036) at Sandu'ao port in Ningde in China's Fujian Province on the morning of June 8.

He then set off from the port by speedboat around 10 p.m. the same day, according to a statement issued Tuesday by the prosecutors office.

He drove the boat toward Taiwan and arrived at the Tamsui ferry pier in northern Taiwan at around 9 a.m. the next day.

Taiwan's Coast Guard began monitoring the small boat on the morning of June 9 after receiving a report that the vessel had hit a local commercial passenger vessel as it approached Fisherman's Wharf, the prosecutors office said.

The man then went ashore and said he was there to surrender after riding his boat over from China.

He said "I wanted to flee from there" and "I came from China for democracy," but he was arrested by the Coast Guard, which also seized his boat and GPS receiver, the prosecutors office said.

According to prosecutors, the Chinese man said he took the risk of going to Taiwan to seek asylum because he was restricted from leaving the country for making unfavorable remarks.

After the Coast Guard handed the man over to prosecutors, they filed a motion with the district court to have him detained, which the court granted, and he was held at a National Immigration Agency detention center.

The Coast Guard initially suspected that the man's motive for coming to Taiwan involve national security issues given his background as a member of the Chinese Communist Party and the spare fuel in his speedboat.

After an investigation, however, it was determined that the man, who had been a Chinese lieutenant commander and the captain of a naval ship, was not involved in a military or national security offense based on two factors.

There was no evidence on his mobile phone of communication between him and any Taiwanese person and he only had a small amount of foreign currency, including Japanese yen and Singapore dollars, on his person.

Prosecutors did not recommend a sentence for the suspect, but under the Immigration Act, people who enter Taiwan without permission are subject to jail terms of up to five years and/or a fine of up to NT$500,000 (US$15,498).