Chinese father indicted for illegally sailing to Taiwan with son

Taoyuan, Aug. 16 (CNA) The Taoyuan District Prosecutors Office on Saturday indicted a Chinese national who illegally entered Taiwan with his son on a rubber boat in May.

Forty-one-year-old Song Yuankun (宋元坤) was indicted for violating Taiwan's Immigration Act, while his 17-year-old son will be referred to the Juvenile Court, the office said.

Additionally, prosecutors confiscated the equipment they used, and asked for aggravated sentencing for Song based on the Protection of Children and Youths Welfare and Rights Act, which stipulates that adults who commit crimes with minors shall be subject to an increase in their sentence of up to 50 percent.

According to the indictment, an investigation found that Song, who worked as a laborer in Yunnan Province, China, believed that Taiwan was "prosperous" and wanted to bring his son, who works as a hairdresser, to Taiwan to study.

The pair set out for Taiwan at around 6 a.m. on May 15 in an inflatable rubber boat with an outboard motor, which they had purchased from a Chinese online shopping site, the indictment said.

The two left Yunnan and picked up their boat in Fujian Province. They departed from Junshan Village on Pingtan Island, about 68 nautical miles from Taiwan, and arrived at the beach next to the Guantang LNG Terminal in Guanyin District in Taoyuan at about 5:30 p.m. the same day, the indictment said.

After arriving in Taiwan, they withdrew cash with a UnionPay card for dinner, but ran out of money and turned themselves in at around 8 a.m. the next day at the Guanyin police station in Taoyuan, bringing the incident to light, the indictment said.

Prosecutors and police investigated whether the two had any intention of espionage, but ruled out suspicions they were spying or asserting Chinese sovereignty after both father and son passed polygraph tests.