Taiwan claims that a missing soldier has been located in China.

A Taiwanese soldier who went missing last week from an island near the Chinese coast has been found in mainland China, raising the possibility of a highly unusual defection amid heightened tensions across the Taiwan Strait. Chiu Tai-san, minister of Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, said China had notified Taiwan that the soldier, surnamed Chen, is currently in mainland China. Chen was reported missing on Erdan island following a roll call, and the Taiwanese Defense Ministry had set up a special task force to locate him. In recent years, Beijing has ramped up economic, diplomatic and military pressure on Taiwan, with the People's Liberation Army (PLA) frequently sending aircraft and warships close to the island. The Taiwanese Defense Ministry has existing mechanisms to determine whether the soldier should be identified as a deserter, and the two sides have communication channels to handle emergency situations and combat crime.

While defection between the two sides has been rarely heard of in recent years, it used to be a more common occurrence, with 20 cases of defections to China between 1949 and 1989. In 1981, China paid a reward of $370,000 to a Taiwanese Air Force major who defected to the mainland with an American-built reconnaissance plane. In 1979, Justin Lin, a Taiwanese ground force captain and company commander, swam across that channel to defect to China.