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19 August, but found only mainland liquor and cigarettes. seriously, there has been the case of the mutiny aboard a Taiwan fishing vessel during which the captain was killed by members of the mixed Taiwan and mainland crew. The ship originally put into Darwin in late July. The Australian authorities eventually managed to arrange for the extradition of the crew, via Singapore, to Taiwan, where they arrived on 7 August. Three mainland members of the crew were implicated in the murder. Two have chosen to be tried in Taiwan (the Australians apparently gave them the choice) and the third has been repatriated to China. He made a statement apologising to the Captain's family and expressing the hope that his actions would not affect relations between Taiwan and the mainland. If convicted, those accused face a possible death penalty. Another potential embarrassment was eventually avoided in the case of Yang Po, a mainland student studying in Japan who went to South Korea and attempted to seek asylum in the Taiwan Embassy there. Because he had not come directly from the mainland, he was not considered a political refugee. The Taiwan authorities were prepared to provide him with a passport, but not to allow him to enter Taiwan. In the end he was persuaded to go to a Latin American country friendly to Taiwan and South Korea which would accept him. He married his girlfriend, and left, with her, on 2 September.
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The Taiwan authorities have pressed on with their more aggressive diplomatic tactics. The talk now is of reviving their agricultural and technical diplomacy of the past. Essentially this means buying friends in developing countries. Grenada was apparently much helped in reaching its decision to recognise Taiwan by a $10 million loan. According to a press report the next target is Fiji, with which a $2 million loan is being discussed. At the beginning of the year Taiwan established a $1.2 billion Overseas Economic Development Fund which is, no doubt, capable of being dangled as an inducement to friendship. A press report in early August mentioned the resumption of agricultural and technical links with Liberia which had had the decency, despite the absence of formal relations, to allow the Taiwan commercial office to use the designation "Republic of China" in its title. The Foreign Minister Lien Chan was reported in the Free China Weekly (24 August) as saying that the government was "striving to build semi-official and then full official ties with more than 120 nations". The Vice Foreign Minister Charles King visited Paraguay for a conference of Taiwan Ambassadors in the region, and where he extended an invitation to the President to visit Taiwan. He then went on to visit Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Colombia, none of which have relations with Taiwan. He was expected to discuss debt problems with them. Later in the month the Minister of Economic Affairs, Chen Li-an, left for a visit to France, Switzerland, West Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. Foreign visitors to Taiwan have included the President of Guatemala (30 August- 4 September) and the South African Minister of Economics and Technology, Mr Steyn, to attend the 10th Joint Conference on Economic and Technological Co-operation. (The South Africans moved swiftly to apologise to the
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