The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) and Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) are at loggerheads over who will lead a delegation to visit China's judiciary after the two sides signed an agreement on joint crime fighting and judicial assistance.
The SEF is organizing a group to visit China's judiciary later this month or early next month. It has said it would be led by MAC Deputy Minister Liu Te-shun (劉德勳), but that it has not received a reply because Liu is very busy.
However, Liu said he had declined the invitation earlier yesterday morning because he did not think it was necessary for him to attend.
What concerned him most was whether his participation would produce any tangible effect, he said, adding that it would make more sense for SEF Secretary-General Kao Koong-lian (高孔廉) to lead the group because of the nature of the trip.
Liu said the purpose of the trip was to gain an understanding of how Chinese legal authorities operate and engage in face-to-face exchanges with their Chinese counterparts.
Apart from the MAC and the SEF, delegation members would include officials from the Judicial Yuan, the Ministry of Justice, the Criminal Investigation Bureau, the Coast Guard Administration and the Investigation Bureau, Liu said.
Since Taipei and Beijing signed an agreement on the two sides jointly combating crime and providing judicial assistance in June, public expectations are high that Taiwanese fugitives in China would be repatriated. However, no high-profile suspect has been extradited to date, raising doubts about the effectiveness of the system.
Liu yesterday urged the public to be patient, saying the government had renewed its list of criminals and hopes Beijing would speed up the process and offer judicial assistance in accordance with the agreement.
Liu said there was already a mechanism for promoting judicial assistance in place before the two sides signed the accord, but the agreement would strengthen the system and send a clear message to would-be criminals that they might want to think twice before they decide to flout the law.
Asked whether the process had sped up since the agreement was signed, Liu said the Criminal Investigation Bureau and Investigation Bureau might be in a better position to answer the question.
Liu, however, urged China-based Taiwanese businesspeople to seek help from the MAC or the SEF should they be involved in any legal dispute. Authorities can only offer concrete assistance when they have complete information, Liu said.
As China had no right to demand Taiwan's judiciary expedite its legal proceedings, Liu said, Taiwan could not make the same request to their Chinese counterpart.
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