Taiwan ally agrees to take Chinese dissident

"We understand the Taiwanese government's difficulty in accepting him since he traveled to Taiwan with a fake document."

Xiang Lin, deputy secretary of the Overseas Chinese Democracy Coalition

Chinese dissident Xu Bo (徐波) reached the Marshall Islands yesterday after the south Pacific country agreed to grant Xu a work permit, sources said, four months after he arrived in Taiwan seeking asylum.

"The Marshall Islands agreed to accept Xu ... Our ally issued a work permit to Xu after a Taiwanese firm there agreed to hire him," Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Richard Shih (石瑞琦) said yesterday.

Xu left Taiwan on Thursday and was due in Majuro, the capital of the Marshall Islands, later yesterday, Shih said.

Xiang Lin (相林), deputy secretary of the Overseas Chinese Democracy Coalition, who received a call from Xu during his transit in Guam late Thursday night, said Xu was in good spirits.

"It's an arrangement satisfactory to all sides," Tokyo-based Xiang said in a phone interview.

The US, Japan, Germany, France and other European countries declined to accept Xu even though he was recognized as a refugee by the UN High Commission for Refugees, Shih said.

Since Taiwan is not a member of the UN, nor a signatory to the 1951 Geneva Refugee Convention, the country has been unable to adhere to this international agreement as a legal yardstick to accept Xu as a UN-recognized refugee, Shih said.

The government had said that Taiwan had no asylum law, so it would be difficult to accept Xu's request.

After his book entitled Red Fascist angered Beijing, Xu fled China in 1999 and sought asylum in South Korea. There he was granted refugee status by UNHCR, but he was labeled "an anti-establishment activist" by South Korean intelligence services, which then sought his deportation.

Fearing that he would be sent back to China, Xu used a fake passport to board a plane to Thailand that stopped over in Taipei on Jan. 26.

The Overseas Chinese Democracy Coalition, led by dissident Wei Jingsheng (魏京生), identified Xu as the head of the group's office in Seoul, a position he held since March last year.

Out of humanitarian concerns, Taiwan decided not to send Xu back to China or South Korea, Shih said.

"We understand the Taiwanese government's difficulty in accepting him since he traveled to Taiwan with a fake document ... We all agreed that it might be better for Xu to settle down in a third country," Xiang said.

Xiang came to Taipei several times to visit Xu and talked to officials handling the matter.

Xu was originally scheduled to leave for the Marshall Islands in early May, but Majuro asked Taipei to delay the trip because of the SARS outbreak, Shih said.

Several government bodies handled the case, while Chen Lien-chun (陳連軍), ambassador to the Marshall Islands, played a key role in securing help from Majuro, insiders said.

On behalf of Xu, Xiang expressed his gratitude to Taiwan's government as well as the police at CKS Airport, where Xu was detained for the past four-and-a-half months.

"They've done their best to handle this case," Xiang said. "The police have treated him well. Xu was free to stay at the police office to make phone calls and watch TV."