Makung, Penghu Islands, Sept. 6 (CNA) A Penghu-based fishing boat, which has been missing since May 21, is reportedly being held in custody by mainland Chinese coastal authorities, sources from Kuomintang Legislator Lin Ping-kun's Office said on Wednesday.
Skipper Tsai San-pao, 59, and the two deckhands of "Hung Hsing Fu 2" reportedly will be tried in the near future on charges of spying, Legislator Lin's aides said.
The families of the fishermen told the media Tuesday that they have learned from sources in mainland China's Fujian province that the "Hung Hsing Fu 2" was seized and its crew arrested on charges of espionage in mainland China's territorial waters.
The mainland sources said Tsai and the crew were caught operating in waters off Jiuzhen in Fujian's Zhangpu County, an offshore area considered to be of "sensitive national security" importance, and thus they will be tried on charges of espionage.
Tsai's family appealed to Legislator Lin for help on Aug. 1. Lin's office then wrote Taiwan's intermediary body with mainland China, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), to inform Lin on the crisis surrounding the fishing boat and its crew.
The SEF then contacted its Beijing counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS), and relayed the concerns to the mainland Chinese authorities.
The ARATS response to the SEF indicated that Beijing authorities still have no information about the fishing boat and its crew, only saying that they would continue to "look into" the case, according to Legislator Lin's aides.
Tsai's family on Wednesday continued to appeal for help from the government to rescue the Penghu fishermen. One of the boat's two crew members is Skipper Tsai's 22-year-old son Tsai Chih-hung. (By Deborah Kuo)
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