Wuqiu (Wuchiu, Wuciou, Ockseu[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][excessive citations]) (Puxian Min: Ou-chhiu, Hakka: Vû-hiu-hiông) is a rural township of Kinmen County (Quemoy), Taiwan (ROC) made up of a group of islands in the Taiwan Strait comprising two major islands, Daqiu and Xiaoqiu.
Wuqiu Township[14] is nominally de jure part of Futian County, Fukien of the Republic of China.
In February 1957, the British cargo ship Hydralock ran aground off Ockseu Island.
[37] In the summer of 1965, then-Minister of National Defense Chiang Ching-kuo visited the island as part of an inspection.
[42] During the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis in 1996, military sources in Taipei expected China to attack a small Taiwan-held island.
[43] In 1998, Zero Chou produced a documentary about the islands called Yi Shi Zai Hai Xia Zhong ("Lost in the Strait") (Chinese: 遺失在海峽中:烏坵, 48 mins).
[24] On August 24, 2017, Chen Fu-Hai, then-magistrate of Kinmen County, visited the Wuqiu Township Office.
[46] On the night of August 2, 2019, a cargo ship in port at Wuqiu struck a tetrapod in choppy waves.
The ship sank but the thirteen crew members were rescued by the Wuqiu Islands Garrison Command.
[49] In May 2023, Mayor Tsai Yen-Ming (蔡燕明) was convicted of violating elections law and sentenced to three years and two months in prison.
[50] Wuqiu consists of Greater Qiu Islet (大坵嶼, Dàqiū yǔ) and Smaller Qiu Islet (小坵嶼, Xiǎoqiū yǔ, Hsia Hsü 下嶼[9]) with a total area of 1.2 km2, not to be confused with two islets Daqiu Island (Chinese: 大坵島; pinyin: Dàqiū dǎo) and Xiaoqiu Island (Chinese: 小坵島; pinyin: Xiǎoqiū dǎo) lying off the north coast off Beigan in the Matsu Islands (Lienchiang County).
Ferry services and resupply between Greater Kinmen and Daqiu is run by the military every fifteen days.
The languages spoken in Wuqiu are the native Pu-Xian Min (Hinghwa dialect) and Mandarin Chinese.
[14][27] The residents of other islands in Kinmen (Quemoy) County speak Quanzhou dialect of Min-Nan (Hokkien).