After reeling from criticism and public pressure, officials at the Ministry of Justice reversed their stance on the deportation of Taiwanese from Kenya to China, making public statements yesterday to say that Taiwan has legal jurisdiction over its citizens and needs to negotiate with China on the handling of the suspects.
Deputy Minister of Justice Lin Hui-huang (林輝煌) said it came down to an issue of “concurrent jurisdiction,” in that both Taiwan and China have legal jurisdiction with regard to such cases and therefore it must be handled by cross-strait negotiations.
In the Kenya case, in which the suspects allegedly engaged in telecoms fraud, “Taiwan has jurisdiction because it involves Taiwanese nationals, but China insists that it has jurisdiction because the victims are Chinese nationals,” Lin said.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Under such conditions of “concurrent jurisdiction,” the states involved must convene negotiations, he said at the legislature in Taipei.
“Therefore, our ministry will work with the Mainland Affairs Council and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to attain the result that conforms to the law, while respecting our nation’s dignity and sovereignty,” he said.
Legislators lambasted ministry officials, in particular Tai Tung-li (戴東麗), deputy director of the ministry’s Department of International and Cross-Strait Legal Affairs, who on Tuesday suggested that Beijing had the legal right to deport the Taiwanese to China.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
“In the Kenya incident, the whole nation should unite together to help our fellow citizens, but we have some government officials who are letting us down,” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政) said. “Tai said China taking our citizens by force from Kenya conforms to principles of international criminal jurisdiction. Why did she take China’s side?”
Fellow DPP Legislator Tsai Shih-ying (蔡適應) questioned Tai’s stance that China’s move conformed to international law.
Tai responded by saying that China has jurisdiction in the case, while Taiwan also has jurisdiction.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman An Fongshan (安峰山) yesterday said that Taiwanese should look at the issue from the victims’ viewpoint.
“These offenders carried out their criminal activities in a foreign country. Victims were all Chinese residents, so of course, China has jurisdiction in this case,” An said.
An said China’s justice agencies would conduct a thorough and detailed investigation, during which the legal rights of the Taiwanese suspects would be protected.
He added that many Chinese citizens were victims of the fraud, including the elderly, teachers, students, farmers, laborers and pensioners, some of whom lost their life savings, lost money they needed to treat illnesses or even committed suicide.
Officials at the Chinese Ministry of Public Security yesterday said that they have jurisdiction to investigate the group of suspects.
“In these cases, when Taiwan and China handle it separately, these criminals often do not receive their deserved punishment and we cannot give the defrauded money back to the victims,” the officials said.
In the past two years, officials said Kenyan authorities had arrested 67 people from China and 50 from Taiwan in two major busts of telecom fraud rings targeting people living in Beijing, Jiangsu, Sichuan, Hunan and five other Chinese provinces.
SOLIDARITY: A group of European lawmakers condemned China’s aggressive moves, while the foreign minister of Lithuania said Taiwan ‘cannot become a second Ukraine’ A German parliamentary delegation would visit Taiwan in the first week of October, German lawmaker Holger Becker on Monday told visiting Democratic Progressive Party legislators Fan Yun (范雲) and Lin I-chin (林宜瑾) at the Bundestag in Berlin. Asked by Fan whether he is worried about possible reprisals from Beijing, such as banning him and his family from entering China, Becker said he is more interested in visiting Taiwan, as “now is the time for democracies to stand together.” Fan and Lin also met with German officials to exchange views on digital education and governance. Investing in digital infrastructure and protecting equal rights to
‘IRRATIONAL ACTS’: The defense ministry condemned the drills, during which China tested successors to missiles deployed during the Taiwan Strait Crisis in 1995 and 1996 China yesterday fired several Dongfeng ballistic missiles as it began four days of unprecedented military drills off Taiwan proper following US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei the previous day. On Tuesday, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said Beijing would “take all necessary measures” in retaliation should Pelosi visit Taiwan during her Asia tour. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) from 1:56pm to 4pm fired 11 Dongfeng missiles into waters north, east and south of Taiwan proper, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Taiwanese armed forces, using “forward warning and surveillance mechanisms,” monitored the missile tests
ANNEXATION PLANS: Remarks by the Chinese ambassador to France showed that Beijing seeks to normalize genocide, re-education and gulags, a US official said European and US officials condemned comments from Chinese Ambassador to France Lu Shaye (盧沙野), after he on Wednesday said that Taiwanese would be “re-educated” after any annexation by China. In an interview on French television, Lu accused the Democratic Progressive Party of “extremist” propaganda and turning Taiwanese against “reunification” with China. “We will re-educate. I’m sure that the Taiwanese population will again become favorable of the reunification and will become patriots again,” Lu told BFM TV. The term “re-education” has been used to describe Chinese authorities’ treatment of Uighurs and other Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang. European Parliament Subcommittee on Security and Defense Chairwoman
‘SIMULATED ATTACKS’: Ten warships each from China and Taiwan were maneuvering at close quarters in the Taiwan Strait, with some Chinese vessels crossing the median line Taiwan yesterday reiterated that it would not succumb to pressure from Beijing after China carried out its most provocative military drills in decades in retaliation for US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan last week. “We will never bow to pressure. We uphold freedom and democracy, and believe Taiwanese disapprove [of] China’s bullying actions with force and saber rattling at our door,” Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said yesterday. China had “arrogantly” disrupted regional peace and stability, he said, calling on Beijing to not flex its military muscles. President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has also called on the international community to “support
RSS