TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwanese authorities are investigating how an alleged former Chinese naval officer took a small boat into a strategic estuary leading to the capital of the self-governing island republic.
The small boat was discovered off the coast but was apparently only banned when it began disrupting ferry traffic across the Tamsui River, which flows from the mountains of inland Taiwan into the 100-mile-wide Taiwan Strait that divides Taiwan. and China, which collapsed during a civil war in 1949.
The boat’s pilot was identified as a 60-year-old former Chinese People’s Liberation Army officer surnamed Ruan, the official Central News Agency said. threats to conquer the island it claims as its own territory.
The Taiwan Strait is a major transit point for global trade, but is also known for its winds and tides, prompting speculation about whether the small boat reached China’s coast under its own power or was launched from a kind of mothership.
Transport links between the two sides have been restored over the past two decades, but China’s ruling Communist Party has strict restrictions on where serving and retired officials can travel.
