Law enforcement information indicates that the total volume of drugs smuggled from Mainland to Taiwan amounts to 3300 kilograms, while narcotic drugs totals to 25 metric ton during 1990-1998. The smuggled heroin and amphetamine in the year of 1998 is about 70 kilos and 600 kilos respectively, each of which accounts for more than 50 percent and nearly 70 percent of the total seizures of that year. The figures manifest how serious problems are.

Heroin is smuggled mainly through transportation containers, while amphetamine by Mainland fishing vessels (Table 1).

Due to the fact that Taiwan is not a member of the United Nations, Taiwan is not eligible for the status as a signatory to the UN Convention on anti-drug campaign of 1988. Nevertheless, Taiwan has achieved remarkable progress in its efforts to promulgate and execute relevant anti-drug laws and to cooperate with the international society. In fact, not only has Taiwan’s efforts met the standards set forth in the above-mentioned Convention, but it has also been deleted from the list of the major drug transfer hubs by the United Nations in 1996. This offers a strong rebuttal to the U.S. allegation that Taiwan is a drug transport hub under its Strategic Report for International Drug Control.

source：Investigation Bureau, Ministry of Justice, ROC

unit：kilogram

Statistics provided by the Criminal Police Office show that local law enforcement officers have confiscated more than 2,400 mainland-made system-mode guns during 1988 to 1998, accounting for 20% of all seized system-mode guns of that same period. The above figure does not include those made by countries other than the PRC and sold to Taiwan through the Mainland, and those series number and country of origins are not identifiable.

Though seizures of smuggled guns have slightly dropped in recent years, the ROC government has maintained tight control over gun smuggling, for such activities constitute serious threats to the public security (Table 2).

Table 2 Seized Firearms in ROC

source：Criminal Police Office

unit：piece

According to statistics provided by the Directorate General of Customs, Ministry of Finance, the total value of the seizures from the Mainland is worth 25billion NT dollars. Though the figure in the year of 1998 has declined a bit, the total value of that year is still as high as 2.37 billion NT dollars, and the impact of smuggling itself with respect to market order, public security and tax revenues of a country is significant (Table 3).

Table 3

Mainland fishing boats have been prevented 53,000 times from attempts to trespass Taiwan waters over the past three years, including 15,000 times in 1998 (Table 5). There were 28 events of disputes with Taiwan fishing boats due to entangled nets, harassment, robbery, and collisions entailed by these trespassing ships (Table 4). Such trespassing affected Taiwan fishermen's livelihood, and more than often, these mainland fishing boats have engaged in electric fishing, poisoning, dynamite fishing, smuggling, and transporting stowaways. These acts have caused a serious depletion of fishing resources and have also affected the security of the Republic of China.

Table 4 Fishing Disputes of Fishing Vessels at Sea in the Year of 1998

Table 5 Enforcement against Trespassing Fishing Boats

ROC GOVERNMENT’S POSITION

One of the four items of consensus reached during the October 1998 Koo-Wang meeting was to provide more assistance on individual cases of cross-strait civil distress. It has been our government’s consistent policy that all issues arising from cross-strait exchanges which are of great concern and close bearing on people's interests shall be dealt with first. In criminal cases involving the two sides, mutual assistance has been rendered in information exchange, criminal record verification, investigation cooperation, repatriation, and exchange of judicial paper only with a limited effect. In 1998, the Koo-Wang meeting reached several consensuses on active cooperation on cases related to exchanges and early resumption of institutionalized talks. A cooperative campaign against crime is one of the major issues. However, a further action in joint crime control requires a more open attitude and active support from the mainland side in order to prevent people's interests from being damaged by criminal acts.

The SEF-ARATS joint agreement, signed into effect in 1993, already identified issues related to joint combat of maritime crime and robbery and mutual assistance on judicial branches of the two sides. It is hoped that through consultations on these issues that the formal channel for joint crime control can be established.

However, the mainland side has dragged on the institutionalized talks since 1995, forestalling any arrangement on this issue. Given the nature of criminal investigations, its efficacy, timeliness, and efficiency relies on a formal agreement in order to reach for a total solution. The government has prepared a draft to be presented in talks in future cross-strait exchanges to swiftly reach an agreement with the mainland side. It is undesirable to use political differences to drag down the protection for the interests of the peoples on the two sides. The government urges once again that the two sides shelve for the time being ideological conflicts and enter into pragmatic negotiations on crime control. Only by doing so can the well-being of the people of the two sides be protected, win-win relations achieved, and the security of the Asia Pacific region actually be secured.