The mainland side has shown its thankfulness to the Taiwan side
for its rescue of mainland sailors in Monday's shipwreck, 20 miles
off the coastline of Taiwan's Lugang Township, according to the
State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office.
On Monday morning, at about 3:00 a.m., the Panamanian-flagged
"Daji" , with 25 mainland sailors aboard, met heavy storms and sank
in the Taiwan Straits (N. 24,03,1 and E. 119,58,05), on a voyage
from Hong Kong to Taichung Port of Taiwan. The sailors sent SOS
message and then quit the vessel.
Upon learning about the shipwreck, the Headquarters Search and
Rescue (SAR) Taiwan acted immediately.
So far, 13 of the sailors have survived, eight have died, and
four are still missing. The 13 survivors are now staying in two
hospitals in Taiwan's Chiayi and Taichung cities, respectively.
The mainland sailors come from Fujian, Guangdong, Jiangsu,
Shandong and Liaoning provinces.
The State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office and the mainland's
Association for the Relations across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) have
contacted Taiwan's Strait Relations Foundation and service center
for the people of the two banks across the strait, to show their
gratefulness for the timely rescue by Taiwan side, and asked them
to continue searching and rescuing the missing sailors and make
proper arrangement for the survivors.
Meanwhile, mainland authorities have asked relevant localities
to inform the families of the dead sailors to deal with the
aftermath.
A spokesman of the Association for the Relations across the
Taiwan Strait said the association will continue monitoring
concerned matters and help the families to deal with the
aftermath.
(Xinhua News Agency January 16, 2008)