TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Two Chinese were detained a week after they landed on a New Taipei beach in a rubber dinghy, reports said Tuesday.
They arrived near Taipei Port in Bali District on July 23, per Liberty Times. Passersby discovered the dinghy the following day, noticing an oil barrel and food containers with inscriptions in the simplified characters used in China.
After they reported the find to authorities, the Coast Guard Administration used surveillance cameras to track the two suspects. They were found and detained in Taoyuan on July 30, one week after they first landed in Taiwan, the report said.
The Shilin District Court approved their detention. Because their arrival came shortly before the launch of the Han Kuang 42 military drills on Aug. 5, national security organizations paid close attention to the incident, Liberty Times reported.
Bali's beaches and nearby Taipei Port are sensitive locations, with the area seen as one of the most likely sites for a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. Since last year, there have been 29 similar cases involving 71 people, with 61 detained on the spot.
The Coast Guard Administration apologized for the latest incident and blamed the oversight on its radar operator. The dinghy had appeared on radar screens as a flickering dot, but the operator relied on his four years of experience to dismiss the signal as the result of strong waves.
Standard operating procedures dictated that he should have alerted a superior to the anomaly and told local personnel to check the location. However, he never informed Coast Guard personnel in the field, missing a chance to find the suspects immediately.
The Coast Guard said it would strengthen coastal patrols and observation at sea, using new methods including drones.
