The head of the Taiwanese crime syndicate known as the "Four Seas Gang" (
Taiwan's Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) confirmed yesterday that Shanghai police arrested Yang Kuang-nan (楊光南) at a restaurant in the city on Nov. 1.
Eight other people were reportedly arrested along with Yang.
CIB officials said they are working with the Straits Exchange Foundation (
This is the second time Yang has been arrested in China. He was first arrested for a brawl at a Shanghai bar in March last year. Yang was released and deported to Macau after almost two months in jail.
At the time, Yang narrowly escaped Taiwan police who were sent to pick him up at Macau's airport.
China has since blacklisted Yang.
Local media reported yesterday that Yang had fled to Hainan Island, Singapore and the US before finally returning to China to consolidate his power base there.
The Four Seas Gang has been running gambling dens and nightclubs in Shanghai in cooperation with local gangs, local media reports said.
Shanghai police were prompted to take action after the Four Seas Gang decided to move its headquarters to Shanghai, according to police sources.
Cooperation between crime syndicates in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau has been on the rise following the handover of Hong Kong and Macau to Chinese rule.
Taiwan's CIB officials said they are optimistic about Yang's repatriation to Taiwan, but also expressed concern that the Four Seas Gang may mobilize its political connections on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to arrange Yang's escape.
Taiwan police suspect Yang has been involved in numerous criminal cases here, ranging from bid-rigging to murder.
Yang was convicted in a murder case in the mid-1980s and was released after serving time in jail.
One report said that Yang had tried to dissolve his gang four years ago, wanting to shed his criminal background and start businesses in Shanghai, but did not follow through with his plan.
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
Both sides of the Taiwan Strait share a political foundation based on the “1992 consensus” and opposition to Taiwanese independence, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today said during her meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Both sides of the Strait should plan and build institutionalized and sustainable mechanisms for dialogue and cooperation based on that foundation to make peaceful development across the Strait irreversible, she said. Peace is a shared moral value across the Strait, and both sides should move beyond political confrontation to seek institutionalized solutions to prevent war, she said. Mutually beneficial cross-strait relations are what the
ECONOMIC COERCION: Such actions are often inconsistently applied, sometimes resumed, and sometimes just halted, the Presidential Office spokeswoman said The government backs healthy and orderly cross-strait exchanges, but such arrangements should not be made with political conditions attached and never be used as leverage for political maneuvering or partisan agendas, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks after China earlier in the day announced 10 new “incentive measures” for Taiwan, following a landmark meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) in Beijing on Friday. The measures, unveiled by China’s Xinhua news agency, include plans to resume individual travel by residents of Shanghai and China’s Fujian
RSS