Spent 51 days searching but found no one: Hiker’s family slams rescue as perfunctory

In February this year, college student Zhang Bowei got lost while hiking on Bai Gu Mountain in Nantou and called for help via mobile phone. However, over 600 personnel from relevant authorities spent a full 51 days on the search but found nothing. Eventually, it was other hikers who discovered Zhang Bowei’s body. Yesterday, Zhang’s family appeared at the Legislative Yuan, accusing the authorities of conducting a perfunctory rescue operation, even failing to use mobile phone positioning technology to assist in the search, which led to their son’s tragic death.

Zhang Bowei’s parents stated that at the time of the incident, the personnel at the search command center not only lacked professional rescue capabilities and disregarded scientific data, relying solely on experience, but they didn’t even have binoculars. They requested that rescuers carry mobile phone satellite positioning systems to record the search area or use mobile phone IP and TA values for location tracking, but the command center flatly refused, citing that “such things don’t exist.” In contrast, civilian rescue teams and search experts were able to use the last registered location of the cell tower and the locations of two-way communication to map out the search direction, pinpointing a small area for searching, and found the body in just a day and a half. “The rescue team was simply perfunctory. They go hiking every day and clock out at five o’clock!”

Additionally, Tien Chiu-chin and the media also questioned the search records from the Ren’ai Branch of Nantou County Fire Bureau, which stated that the rescue team had searched the location where Zhang Bowei died on March 6 of this year and reported no findings. However, hiker Mr. Huang found Zhang Bowei at the same spot on that very day. “If the rescue team really went there, why didn’t they find him? Was the record falsified? Or did some rescuers lie?”

In response, Feng Chun-yi, the Secretary-General of the National Fire Agency under the Ministry of the Interior, stated that the case will be officially filed and reviewed, and the Ren’ai Branch of Nantou County Fire Bureau and the Ren’ai Police Precinct will be asked to provide an explanation regarding the search records.