The US has put forth a draft extradition treaty with Taiwan, Taiwan’s Deputy Representative to the US Leo Lee (李澄然) said in Washington on Thursday.
The two sides are currently negotiating details to resolve differences, Lee said, adding that the agreement will need to be endorsed by both countries’ legislatures after it is signed.
In Taipei, Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials remained tight-lipped on the treaty when asked to comment.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Timothy Yang (楊進添) said Taiwan and the US are seeking to enhance judicial cooperation on the basis of the Agreement on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters (台美刑事司法互助協定), which was signed in 2002, by signing an extradition treaty.
However, Yang added he was not aware of the draft extradition treaty presented by the US.
Also saying he had no comment, director-general of the ministry’s Department of North American Affairs Bruce Linghu (令狐榮達) said the time was not ripe for the ministry to reveal any negotiation details.
“There is still much to study as the US is a common law country, while Taiwan’s legal system is a civil law system. In addition to the differences in the legal systems adopted, both sides have different concerns on the extradition treaty,” Linghu said.
According to Deputy Minister of Justice Chen Shou-huang (陳守煌), Taiwan began to talk with the US about signing such a treaty in 2008, but the ministry had no understanding of the content of the draft put forward by the US.
In October, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director William Stanton was quoted as saying in an interview with the Chinese--language United Daily News that one complicated issue involved in the matter was whether Taiwanese holding US citizenship could be extradited under the treaty.
AIT did not comment yesterday, citing the need to clarify information with Washington.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
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More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
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