TAIPEI (AFP): A Taiwanese court on Wednesday sentenced a former Chinese naval captain to eight months in prison for illegally entering the self-governing island by boat.
China claims democratic Taiwan as part of its territory and has in recent years ramped up military and political pressures on the island.
The ex-naval captain, Ruan Fangyong, was one of 18 purported defectors from China over the past year, officials have said.
Taiwan has been on high alert regarding the Chinese nationals, fearing they may have been sent by Beijing to test the island’s defenses.
Ruan was arrested by Taiwan’s coast guard in June after his vessel collided with another boat on the Tamsui River, which flows from the capital Taipei to the island’s northern coast.
Prosecutors charged him last month with entering the island without permission but said “no military or national security involvement” was linked to his act.
Like other recent supposed defectors, he claimed to admire Taiwan’s “democratic way of life,” authorities said.
A district court in Taipei convicted him on Wednesday of violating a law governing relations with China and the immigration law.
“The defendant, in order to enter Taiwan, has considerable knowledge of our coastal defense and drove (a boat) … to enter without permission which seriously harmed our national security,” the court said in a statement.
The court added that it took into account Ruan turning himself in to the police and confessing his crime, which qualified him for a reduced sentence.
He can appeal the ruling.
In a similar case, another Chinese man was found in a rubber dinghy in waters near New Taipei City, on the island’s northern coast, on Saturday.
The man, who was detained for illegal entry, claimed he “has debts in China and wants to start a new life in Taiwan,” according to the coast guard.