TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A group of Chinese officials made a visit to Kinmen on Friday (Feb. 23) to discuss the deadly speedboat incident that occurred last week amid heightened tensions in the Taiwan Strait.
The Chinese delegation arrived by boat using one of the mini-three-links ports and was led by the chairman of the Jinjiang Red Cross, Cao Rongshan (曹榮山). They came to discuss matters related to the two Chinese men who died in the incident.
The group met with a Taiwanese delegation comprised of representatives from the Taiwan Coast Guard, the Mainland Affairs Council, Kinmen County, and the Straits Exchange Foundation, reported UDN.
The two sides met behind closed doors for two sessions at the River Kinmen Hotel; once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Reports indicate that voices were raised, but that no consensus was found and the content of the discussion was not made public.
Cao, representing the Red Cross organization in Jinjiang City, north of Kinmen, is the official who accompanied the two surviving Chinese citizens involved in the incident back to China following their brief detention last week, reported Tai Sounds.
Several family members of the two Chinese citizens who died during last week’s incident were also present, and spent several days in Kinmen prior to Friday’s meeting. The meetings allegedly involved discussions of compensation, cremation and repatriation of remains.
UDN reports that the afternoon meeting began at 2 p.m., but tempers quickly flared and negotiations came to an abrupt halt after less than 30 minutes.
Following the meeting, the group of Chinese officials and family representatives, 13 people in total, were preparing to leave and return to China via the “mini-three-links” boat at approximately 4 p.m. However, the group suddenly claimed to have received a message from China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) which told them they were not permitted to leave Kinmen.
Taiwanese officials insisted that the family members who had arrived previously would be deported as their permit to remain was expiring. In the end, seven members of the Chinese group remained in Kinmen for further talks, including the officials led by Cao and two family representatives, per UDN.
