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China asks Taiwan to explain missile blunder

ROC Central News Agency

2016/07/01 20:21:54

Beijing, July 1 (CNA) China's top official on Taiwan affairs said Friday that Taiwan should provide a "responsible" explanation for launching a missile accidentally into the Taiwan Strait earlier in the day, calling it a "serious" matter.

Zhang Zhijun (張志軍), head of China's Taiwan Affairs Office, said the incident had "a serious impact," coming at a time when Beijing has stressed the importance of maintaining the peaceful development of the cross-strait relations, with the "1992 consensus" as the political foundation.

"This requires Taiwan to provide a responsible explanation on what had happened," Zhang said in response to reporters' questions on the incident on the sidelines of an event promoting cross-strait student exchanges.

Asked if Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) had notified the the Taiwan Affairs Office of the incident, he replied that he "had no information."

In Taipei, the MAC said in a statement Friday that it had asked the Straits Exchange Foundation, a semi-official organization responsible for cross-strait negotiations, to notify its Chinese counterpart -- the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) -- of the case and ask it to help pass the information to related Chinese government agencies.

The locally developed missile was accidentally launched from one of the Navy's 500-ton Chinchiang-class corvettes from Zuoying Military Harbor in Kaohsiung at 8:15 a.m. and hit the fishing boat "Hsiang Li Sheng" (翔利昇) about two minutes later, causing the death of its captain and injuring the other crew members, Taiwan's Navy said.

The Navy said earlier in the day that the missile did not cross the median line of the Taiwan Strait before sinking into waters off Penghu after striking the boat. The strait, which divides Taiwan and China, has an average width of 180 kilometers (97 nautical miles).

The initial findings have found that the missile blunder, which occurred during a drill, was most likely caused by human error, more specifically by a missile operator not following standard procedure, the Navy said.

The investigation is now focused on uncovering more details about the incident and identifying the Navy personnel who should be held accountable and be disciplined.

(By Yin Chun-chieh, Kao Chao-feng and Elaine Hou)
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