On the 16th, a Chinese father and son were arrested and taken to court after crossing the Taiwan Strait to Taiwan in a rubber boat. Coincidentally, on the 18th, a TikTok influencer uploaded a video claiming to have illegally crossed to a Taiwanese beach in a rubber boat, hoisted the Chinese Communist Party's five-star red flag, and then returned to China freely. Ahead of the May 20th inauguration anniversary of Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te, Taiwan's border security has become a hot topic.
The Taiwan Coast Guard Administration released a news release on the 16th stating that the 8th Coast Guard Squadron received a report on the 16th that two Chinese nationals, claiming to have disembarked from the left side of Guanyin Beach in Taoyuan, were traveling in a rubber boat. The Northern Division immediately launched a beach search.
The two Chinese nationals are father and son. After landing, they called the police and declared that they wanted to "seek freedom". After being brought back for interrogation, the Taoyuan District Prosecutor's Office requested the judge to detain the father for two months and the request was approved. The teenager was temporarily handed over to Taiwan's Immigration Agency.
The Coast Guard Administration stated that the rubber boat driven by the father and son was only 3.3 meters long and could not be effectively detected by radar. In addition, China has been using various means to test Taiwan's response recently, and even used small targets for smuggling during military exercises. It cannot be ruled out that this is a gray zone harassment by the Chinese Communist Party.
Taiwan's Coast Guard should integrate effective maritime surveillance systems with fishermen's communications.
Shen Mingshi, a researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies at the National Defense Academy in Taiwan, told Taiwan News that few people now claim "fleeing to freedom" as an excuse. If they truly intend to flee, they should provide more specific details. Similar cases have occurred in the past, such as a former PLA submarine captain who sailed to Taiwan due to a financial dispute, which appears to be a legitimate motive. However, simply claiming "fleeing to freedom" this time is unconvincing. If those truly fled due to persecution, they should also explain whether they were under close surveillance or tracking. If they were truly persecuted by the regime, how could they obtain equipment, evade surveillance, and successfully reach Taiwan?
He warned, "The increasing frequency of similar incidents highlights the difficulty of Taiwan's Coast Guard ground-based radar in detecting small rubber boats like 3.3-meter boats. We can't go back to the days of stationing troops and daily coastal patrols. Therefore, strengthening the Coast Guard's shore outposts and integrating them with fishermen's communication mechanisms to create a complete and effective maritime surveillance system has become a top priority."
A Douyin influencer claimed to have driven a rubber boat between the two sides of the strait
Just two days after the incident, another Chinese man with the TikTok account "Shandong Kaige" uploaded two videos on TikTok, claiming that he had crossed the sea to Taiwan alone by boat on May 15.
In the first video, "Shandong Kaige" appears to be crossing the sea in an inflatable boat. He claims to the camera that he dreamed of the Jade Emperor and the sea goddess Mazu, tasking him with reaching Taiwan. The second video shows him arriving in Taiwan. "Shandong Kaige" declares, "I have set foot on the land of Taiwan, the motherland's treasured island, and have planted China's vibrant five-star red flag on this beloved land of my motherland." He included his satellite location at the end of the video, claiming to have landed from the beach outside Changle Airport in Fuzhou, Fujian, and arrived in Taoyuan around 2:53 PM on the 15th. He also commented in the comments section, "I went there on my own, carrying four barrels of gas, and it took nine hours."
Taiwan's Coast Guard Administration immediately stated that it was unable to verify the authenticity of the "Shandong Kaige" video. However, at a press conference on the 19th, Deputy Director and Spokesperson Xie Qingqin stated that the relevant footage had been sent for analysis overnight and confirmed to be genuine and unaltered. The footage was taken near a wind turbine in Dayuan District, Taoyuan City.
Regarding whether it is true that the person smuggled into Taiwan by rubber boat as claimed, or whether the photo was posed by local cooperation personnel in Taiwan, the Coast Guard Administration said that it is reviewing the surveillance cameras at the intersection to clarify and coordinating with the Immigration Agency and the Ministry of National Defense for further investigation.
Do you guide and drive your own rubber boat or do you have an expert to guide you?
Shen Mingshi believes that spending several hours paddling a rubber boat to reach Taiwan and then paddling back to China solely for the purpose of raising the national flag and taking photos is highly questionable. Unless the entire operation involved assistance, such as flying to Taiwan beforehand and then leaving on another flight after raising the flag, the rubber boat was simply used to generate buzz. If this were the case, it would be worth investigating whether a team was behind the operation. He speculates that "Shandong Kaige"'s purpose may not simply be an individual act, but rather to generate public opinion, perhaps attempting to highlight the fragility of Taiwan's border defenses, or even to symbolize that "Taiwan could be invaded at any time by force." If this involves propaganda collaboration with China's Taiwan Affairs Office or coordination with the People's Liberation Army, it would require careful handling and investigation.
Chen Wenjia: China's low-tech, low-cost, high-level harassment tactics
Chen Wenjia, a Taiwanese national security strategist, told Taiwan's National Security Agency that the recent frequent incidents of Chinese nationals illegally crossing the Taiwan Strait in simple rubber boats demonstrate China's "low-tech, low-cost, high-harassment" gray-area tactics. Crossing the Taiwan Strait in a 3.3-meter rubber boat is already counterintuitive, and if it manages to avoid radar detection and successfully reach Taiwan, it will highlight the loopholes in Taiwan's border surveillance.
Chen Wenjia stated that this type of illegal immigration has become increasingly common, leading to "border fatigue" in Taiwanese society and raising questions among Taiwanese about the government's governance capabilities. Even more alarming is the fact that illegal immigrants use the guise of "seeking freedom" to infiltrate specific missions or intelligence infiltration, posing a national security risk.
It is not ruled out that this is a gray operation test on the eve of 520
Chen Wenjia analyzed that the aforementioned smuggling activities cannot be ruled out as being related to the upcoming anniversary of Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te's inauguration and the highly sensitive cross-strait atmosphere. First, this tactic avoids conventional military provocations, instead employing "civilian smuggling" in an attempt to manipulate media and public opinion, blurring the narrative of cross-strait relations into one of "institutional attraction" and "free escape." Second, the recurrence of such incidents could easily trigger sensitive Taiwanese attitudes toward Chinese nationals, sparking internal conflict and social division. Furthermore, China hopes to use these gray area operations to pressure the Taiwanese government without provoking military conflict, testing the Lai administration's bottom line and response model toward China. He suggested that the Taiwanese government demonstrate institutional stability and national security to prevent China from exploiting the sensitive May 20th period to manipulate the situation in Taiwan.
