Despite President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) gesture of goodwill toward China with her promise to maintain the “status quo” in cross-strait relations, Beijing has been trying to change the “status quo” by nurturing the perception in the international community that Taiwan is part of China.
What could have more effectively undermined Taiwan’s sovereign status than asserting jurisdiction over the nation?
This is exactly what Beijing has been doing in what has been described by a New Power Party legislator as an “extrajudicial abduction.”
On Friday, the Spanish National Court granted Beijing’s request for the extradition to China of Taiwanese in a group of 121 telecom fraud suspects arrested late last year.
Although their lawyers argued against China’s extradition request based on the suspects’ nationality, the Spanish court ruling was quoted by the Washington Post as noting that international law is increasingly accepting of the “one China” principle, saying: “The international community, except for those countries with which [Taiwan] has diplomatic relations, consider Taiwan to be part of China and take the view that its independence cannot be achieved unilaterally.”
The Spanish case is not an isolated incident, as Beijing has over the past few years had many Taiwanese suspects deported to China: the Philippines in 2011 sent 14 Taiwanese to China in accordance with its “one China” policy; Kenya in April last year sent 45 Taiwanese telecom fraud suspects to China; Malaysia in May last year deported 32 Taiwanese suspects to China; Spain in February deported a group of Taiwanese telecom fraud suspects to China; and Cambodia last month sent 19 Taiwanese fraud suspects to China due to its conformity to the “one China” principle.
All these cases saw Taiwan’s judicial power greatly undermined and its sovereignty slighted.
Although some people defended Beijing’s actions by saying that they were in conformity with the principle of legal jurisdiction, as most of the victims of the alleged crimes resided in China, comments by Chinese officials gave away Beijing’s hidden political agenda.
Rather than expounding on the judicial aspect of the extraditions, China, in the Kenyan case for example, said it approved of the African country upholding the “one China” principle.
Regarding the latest Spanish case, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying (華春瑩) yesterday said Beijing welcomed the ruling, adding that it appreciated “Spain’s firm support of its ‘one China’ principle.”
Beijing clearly has a political motive: to foster the illusion that Taiwan is part of China.
The government must not take the deportations lightly and must be vigilant of their political ramifications.
It should take diplomatic action to manifest the nation’s sovereignty and must not let itself grow accustomed to the injustice of China usurping Taiwan’s judicial powers.
If not, Beijing would gain more ground in ensnaring Taiwan into its “one China” framework in the international arena, as evidenced by the Spanish court ruling, while the Tsai administration’s policy of “maintaining the status quo” erodes Taiwan’s sovereign status.
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