Chinese men sentenced over illegal entry into Taiwan

Two Chinese nationals who illegally entered Taiwan after sailing across the Taiwan Strait in a rubber dinghy in July were sentenced to prison terms yesterday by the Shilin District Court.

One of the men, surnamed Luan (欒), was sentenced to nine months in prison, while the other, surnamed Yu (于), received a six-month prison term that can be commuted to a fine of NT$180,000, calculated at NT$1,000 per day, the court said in a statement.

The rulings can be appealed.

A rubber dinghy that two Chinese nationals allegedly used to sail to Taiwan is pictured in New Taipei City’s Bali District in July.

Photo courtesy of the Coast Guard Administration

In July, a fisher spotted a rubber dinghy on a beach in New Taipei City’s Bali District (八里), along with three life jackets and toilet paper bearing simplified Chinese characters.

The discovery was reported to the Coast Guard Administration, which arrested the two men.

The suspects drove from Qingdao in China’s Shandong Province, on July 19, buying an outboard motor in Jinhua, Zhejiang Province, along the way, prosecutors said.

They departed from the coast of Fuzhou in China’s Fujian Province early on July 22 in a rubber dinghy equipped with the motor.

They arrived near Taipei at about 2am on July 23, prosecutors said.

They traveled to several locations in northern and central Taiwan before being apprehended by coast guard agents on July 30.

The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office in September indicted the two under the Immigration Act (入出國及移民法) and the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), seeking two-year prison terms for each.