Live lobsters are being smuggled into China.

(Provided by Hong Shenhan's office)

[Central News Agency] China has banned the import of Australian lobsters in the past few years due to bad relations, but the media found that in the past two years, Australian lobsters worth more than 100 million Australian dollars were smuggled into China through Taiwan’s Jinmao and Ma areas, and sold out before the Lunar New Year. Let the businessman make a big profit.

The Australian (The Australian) reported that at the heart of the illegal trade was a new smuggling route between Jinmen, Matsu and China.

The narrow waterway is only 10 kilometers from the shortest distance in China's Fujian province.

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An Australian lobster merchant said: "Right now, Taiwan is the gateway (for Australian lobsters) to China."

At Kinmen Airport, you can often see groups of young people waiting for a flight from Taipei. Many of these people are associated with local gangs. They are waiting for the high-value cargo on the plane - the Australian lobster called "Aolong". .

Matsu's air transportation channels were also filled with Styrofoam boxes containing Aolong.

Former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison (Scott Morrison) originally called for tracing the source of COVID-19, which brought China-Australia relations to a deadlock.

China banned the import of Australian lobsters at the end of 2020, making criminal groups in Hong Kong and Taiwan the biggest winners.

The profits of Australian lobster traders have been stripped layer by layer by criminals, opportunists and bribe-taking officials, and they have become the biggest losers together with Chinese customs.

In 2019, before the import ban was implemented, the sales of Australian lobster in China exceeded 750 million Australian dollars (approximately NT$15.86 billion).

There are reports in Australia, China and Taiwan that the Beijing authorities may soon impose a ban on Aolong.

For the new Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's government, which supports China's application to join the "Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership" (CPTPP), lifting the ban is the cheapest way to reciprocate and help curb rampant local corruption .

A well-informed Australian lobster trader said, "We were told that the door will open soon," adding that the news came from China, which has ties to the government.

At the same time, Australian lobsters are still looking for channels to import to China; at this stage, the price of Australian lobsters has reached record-breaking prices.

In southern China's Guangdong province, a seafood merchant assured his customers that the bright red lobsters at his stall "come from Australia, not Mexico" and offered 48-hour home delivery.

In Beijing in the north, the Australian newspaper found during a visit this week that the market price of lobsters has reached 1,260 yuan (about 270 Australian dollars, NT$5,685) per kilogram.

This is more than three times the current Australian lobster export price of 70 to 90 Australian dollars per kilogram. The huge profits provide more incentives for many desperate smugglers.

It is well known that Taiwanese sika deer are not interested in lobster, even high-quality lobster from Australia.

Therefore, when the ship made 33 lobster trips to the uninhabited Matsu Daqiu Island, where only a few hundred sika deer live, it was particularly suspicious.

Between September and November last year, two ships sent a total of 60 tons of live lobster to the island.

Li Wen, chairman of the Lianjiang County Party Committee of the Democratic Progressive Party, told The Australian: "It would be too unusual for a sika deer to eat 60,000 kilograms of Australian lobsters."

He helped track down clues detailing how Australian lobsters made their way to China.

The smuggled boat sailed from the port near the two small airports in Matsu to Daegu Island, known as the "Deer Watching Paradise", and was full of catches in broad daylight. However, the ship did not stop at the Daegu where the destination was registered in writing, but headed north Closer to the waters of China, and connect with Chinese smugglers.

Li Wen said that "only those who have the means in the political circle" can do this kind of ship-to-ship connection.

Lobster smuggling quickly became a talking point in Matsu, a city with a population of about 10,000.

Matsu has never sold Australian lobsters, but now go to the two local ports of Matsu Beigan Baisha Port and Nangan Fuao Port, and you can see high-priced Australian lobsters everywhere.

Even more lobsters were sent to Kinmen, which has a population of about 120,000. Because Kinmen has a larger population, importing a large number of lobsters is less suspicious than Matsu.

In 2021, Hong Kong will be the main relay station for Australian lobster smuggling to China. The amount of live lobster imported is 14 times that of before the ban, exceeding more than 1,300 tons.

However, after the Hong Kong media exposed and officials began to crack down on smuggled lobsters, smuggled lobsters in Hong Kong will disappear at the end of 2021, and smuggling will be transferred to Taiwan.

Compared with before China announced the ban, the number of Australian live lobsters imported by Taiwan has increased by 100 times; in 2022, Taiwan will import more than 1,400 tons of lobsters, compared with only 14 tons in 2019.

There are just signs that the "prosperous" Australian lobster smuggling industry in the Taiwan Strait may no longer be good.

China reopened its land border with Hong Kong this month, reopening logistics routes that had been cut off during the outbreak.

Lobsters can again be hidden in trucks or smuggled into Guangdong by human hands.