Four Additional Taiwanese Reported Missing in China, Council Says Total Near 453

In its latest weekly bulletin, the Mainland Affairs Council reported that four additional Taiwanese citizens have been reported missing in China, bringing the cumulative count of missing, detained for questioning or otherwise restricted persons since the start of 2024 to 453. The number of missing individuals rose to 172, while the figures for those detained for questioning (39) and those held by Chinese authorities (242) stayed unchanged.

The report identified four civil servants—an officer from the Criminal Investigation Bureau, a tax official and a nurse from a Ministry of Health and Welfare hospital—who were questioned by Chinese authorities; the nurse’s interview about her prior work at a military hospital is the first documented case of a Taiwanese nurse facing such scrutiny. A government official said there is no confirmation that any of the missing have had organs removed, despite a recent indictment of a suspected human-trafficking ring that allegedly sought to transport victims to China for organ harvesting.

Officials noted that any organ-removal operation would require cooperation from Chinese medical entities, and it remains unclear whether such activities are driven by the Chinese Communist Party or criminal groups. The council’s data underscores ongoing cross-strait tensions and concerns over the safety of Taiwanese nationals in China.