The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday said it had communicated with a “high-level US official” about the detention of a Taiwanese diplomat in Missouri and has demanded her release.
Jacqueline Liu (劉姍姍), director of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Kansas City, was arrested on Friday by the FBI, charged with foreign labor fraud.
The matter has ruffled feathers in Taiwan because the US and Taiwan signed an agreement on privileges, exemptions and immunities in 1980. The agreement states that Taiwanese diplomatic personnel are immune from lawsuits and legal process relating to acts performed within the scope of their authorized functions.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Timothy Yang (楊進添) said that even though the two countries differ over the definition of “the scope of authorized functions,” the US did not need to handle the affair with “such a manner and attitude.”
He said that the ministry was demanding Liu’s release and said it would also begin an internal investigation of Liu’s alleged crime of grossly underpaying her Philippine maid, taking away her passport and forcing her to work -excessively long hours.
The charges carry a possible five-year sentence in a US federal jail.
Yang said the TECO in Kansas City was not the only de facto Taiwanese consulate to have hired foreign laborers in the US, and he also said that it was TECO and not Liu who signed the employment contract with the Philippine worker.
Yang said Representative to the US Jason Yuan (袁健生) talked about Liu’s arrest with a senior US official on the sidelines of the APEC forum in Hawaii.
Discussing the matter, Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said yesterday that the detention was irrelevant to Washington’s policy on Taiwan.
While the ministry maintains that Liu should enjoy diplomatic immunity under an agreement on privileges, Wu said that immunity does not apply to a diplomat’s personal affairs.
Liu has been charged with violating federal law because she forced her housekeeper to work long hours and paid her far less than the amount promised in her employment contract.
Federal prosecutors say the defendant is believed to be the first foreign representative to face such charges in the US.
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