National Police Agency Director-General Wang Cho-chiun (王卓鈞) flew to Beijing yesterday, making him the highest-ranking Taiwanese police officer ever to visit China, officials said.
Wang and his 16-member delegation were to meet Chinese Public Security Minister Meng Jianzhu (孟建柱).
The delegation’s visit follows Chinese Vice Minister of Public Security Chen Zhimin’s (陳智敏) secret — at the time — visit to Taiwan from Sept. 13 to Sept. 18.
PHOTO: CNA
Wang will also visit Shanghai as well as Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces before returning home on Tuesday.
“The purpose of the visit is to ramp up cooperation on ways to battle crime on both sides,” the National Police Agency (NPA) said in a statement.
In April last year, Taiwan and China forged an agreement on judicial cooperation and joint efforts to beat crime.
The NPA said that since the signing of the agreement, police on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait have arrested 1,254 people from the other side on fraud charges, although the Ministry of Justice’s -statistics show China has only repatriated one fugitive, while Taiwan has submitted 165 requests for such repatriation
A ministry official was quoted by the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) as saying that although Taiwanese authorities have provided their Chinese counterparts with Taiwan’s most-wanted list, China does not seek out the individuals on the list, but only informs Taipei when Chinese police apprehend suspects who happen to be on the list, in which case these people may then be repatriated.
As of June, only one fugitive had been repatriated from China, although he was not a white-collar criminal on the most-wanted list, the official told the newspaper.
The official said that both sides also disagree on jurisdiction.
Since Taiwan does not recognize China’s criminal jurisdiction, a Taiwanese fugitive who was sentenced by China’s courts would face a new trial after being repatriated.
Beijing hopes that Taiwan would recognize Chinese court rulings and allow Taiwanese convicted in China to serve their prison terms in Taiwan on the basis of the Chinese court sentences, the official said.
Because this has yet to happen, Beijing has been reluctant to repatriate Taiwanese fugitives convicted in Chinese courts, the official said.
TRAFFIC SAFETY RULES: A positive result in a drug test would result in a two-year license suspension for the driver and vehicle, and a fine of up to NT$180,000 The Ministry of Transportation and Communications is to authorize police to conduct roadside saliva tests by the end of the year to deter people from driving while under the influence of narcotics, it said yesterday. The ministry last month unveiled a draft of amended regulations governing traffic safety rules and penalties, which included provisions empowering police to conduct mandatory saliva tests on drivers. While currently rules authorize police to use oral fluid testing kits for signs of drug use, they do not establish penalties for noncompliance or operating procedures for officers to follow, the ministry said. The proposed changes to the regulations require
Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan would issue a decision at 8pm on whether to cancel work and school tomorrow due to forecasted heavy rain, Keelung Mayor Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said today. Hsieh told reporters that absent some pressing reason, the four northern cities would announce the decision jointly at 8pm. Keelung is expected to receive between 300mm and 490mm of rain in the period from 2pm today through 2pm tomorrow, Central Weather Administration data showed. Keelung City Government regulations stipulate that school and work can be canceled if rain totals in mountainous or low-elevation areas are forecast to exceed 350mm in
The Executive Yuan yesterday announced that registration for a one-time universal NT$10,000 cash handout to help people in Taiwan survive US tariffs and inflation would start on Nov. 5, with payouts available as early as Nov. 12. Who is eligible for the handout? Registered Taiwanese nationals are eligible, including those born in Taiwan before April 30 next year with a birth certificate. Non-registered nationals with residence permits, foreign permanent residents and foreign spouses of Taiwanese citizens with residence permits also qualify for the handouts. For people who meet the eligibility requirements, but passed away between yesterday and April 30 next year, surviving family members
1.4nm WAFERS: While TSMC is gearing up to expand its overseas production, it would also continue to invest in Taiwan, company chairman and CEO C.C. Wei said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) has applied for permission to construct a new plant in the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區), which it would use for the production of new high-speed wafers, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council, which supervises three major science parks in Taiwan, confirmed that the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau had received an application on Friday from TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, to commence work on the new A14 fab. A14 technology, a 1.4 nanometer (nm) process, is designed to drive artificial intelligence transformation by enabling faster computing and greater power
RSS