The Straits Exchange Foundation’s (SEF) unilateral approval of a former Bamboo Union (竹聯幫) leader’s application for a “Taiwan compatriot travel document” (台胞證) has shocked prosecutors and police, who called for the fugitive to be extradited to Taiwan from China in accordance with the Agreement on Jointly Cracking Down on Crime and Mutual Legal Assistance Across the Strait (海峽兩岸共同打擊犯罪及司法互助協議).
Sources speculated that Chang An-le’s (張安樂) motive for applying for the “Taiwan compatriot travel document” — a document approved by Chinese authorities allowing Taiwanese nationals to travel to China — was to obtain a viable way of transporting himself between China and Taiwan, adding that because Chang is a wanted fugitive whose passport had probably expired, he had no valid personal identification.
“He is most probably attempting to return to Taiwan in an open manner by using the document as a means to prove his identity,” sources said.
Chang, nicknamed “the White Wolf,” is listed among the nation’s 10 most-wanted fugitives. He escaped to China just before being named a wanted person by the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for violating the Organized Crime Prevention Act (組織犯罪防制條例) in 1996, and has not returned since.
The SEF said it had asked for opinions from the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) and the Taipei and Keelung district prosecutors’ offices. However, because of opposition to the views of the CIB and the prosecutors by other government agencies, it granted the request last Friday.
The bureau called the SEF’s decision a severe blow to the judiciary’s authority to fight crime. The prosecutors’ offices added that Chang is still a wanted fugitive and should be treated as such.
The CIB said it suggested the SEF refuse Chang’s request, adding that bureau officials should bring Chang back to Taiwan in accordance with the cross-strait agreement.
Since his escape from justice in 1996, Chang has continually challenged Taiwanese police about how he would return to Taiwan in blatant disregard of the law, the CIB said.
The SEF’s approval of Chang’s request would allow him to purchase a plane ticket and return to Taiwan, allowing him to avoid being shepherded onto a plane in handcuffs by bureau agents, the CIB said.
The bureau acknowledged its efforts in the past to extradite Chang had largely been ignored by China, which said that Chang had been in China prior to the agreement, signed in 2009, and voiced concern that should Chang — an investor in China who has hired many locals — be extradited, his businesses would be shut down, leaving his employees jobless.
Both prosecutors’ offices said they had also conveyed their criticism of the SEF’s actions, with the Keelung Prosecutors’ Office saying that if it knew where Chang was, it would try to arrest him in any way allowed under the Code of Criminal Procedure (刑事訴訟法).
The Taipei Prosecutors’ Office said that Chang, through his lawyer, has asked how long the wanted notice would remain in effect, to which the office said it responded that the wanted notice was still good for at least another decade.
Meanwhile, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said that he did not understand Chang’s motives for applying for such a document, adding that Chang did not need such a document to return to Taiwan.
However, Wang said that Chang had expressed his intent to return to Taiwan through “several different channels,” adding that if Chang did not turn himself in, it was still possible to negotiate with the Chinese on the possibility of extradition.
Additional reporting by Huang Tun-yen,
Lin Chun-hung and Chen Hui-ping
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique