Premier Simon Chang (張善政) yesterday said that the Executive Yuan called for two principles — procedural and judicial justice — to be upheld in the case of Taiwanese deported from Kenya to China.
“The procedure through which Taiwanese are deported to [China] should comply with the principle of procedural justice. We believe that there has been fault on [China’s] part, as it failed to respect the injunction issued by the Kenyan High Court and forced its way to send [Taiwanese to China] and failed to notify us of the matter in advance, which was against the spirit of the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement (海峽兩岸共同打擊犯罪及司法互助協議,)” Chang said.
“I consider it highly appropriate for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Mainland Affairs Council [MAC] to have lodged a stern protest [to China],” he added.
Regarding potential judicial proceedings, the premier said that Taiwanese who have done “bad things” should be punished accordingly.
“From what we know so far, honestly they would be tried in [China], where the people [affected by the alleged fraud] live, where the [suspects] are charged and where sufficient evidence is to be found,” he said.
However, the judicial assistance agreement would need to be relied on for handling of any court cases, Chang said.
“The Ministry of Justice plans to send prosecutors to China to make sure that the rights of the Taiwanese suspects are sufficiently protected during any judicial proceedings,” Chang said.
“Those who have committed crimes should be tried and punished, but if there are people who are innocent, as some have said that they were simply traveling and staying in a hotel [run by Chinese in Kenya], but were arrested along with others, they should be vindicated,” Chang said.
The judicial assistance agreement allows Taiwanese to serve jail sentences in Taiwan, he added.
“We do not want Taiwanese to serve time in [China],” Chang said.
When pressed on the question of whether the Kenya incident would conclude before May 20, the day of the takeover of the new government, Chang said it would be difficult for the judicial case, considering the proceedings it would have to go through, to come to a conclusion before then.
When asked about the disconnection of the cross-strait hotline, Chang said a call from MAC Minister Andrew Hsia (夏立言) to China’s Taiwan Affairs Office was answered, eventually.
“According to Hsia, the talk lasted for more than 50 minutes and we have expressed our stance,” Chang said.
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
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
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
The Republic of China Army Command yesterday relieved Kinmen Defense Battalion commander after authorities indicted the officer on charges connected to using methamphetamine. The Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Wednesday detained Colonel He (何) after the Coast Guard linked him to drug shipments and proceeded to charge him yesterday for using and possessing crystal meth. The man was released on a NT$50,000 bail and banned from leaving Kinmen, the office said. Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Chen Chien-yi (陳建義) told a news conference yesterday that He has been removed and another officer is taking over the unit as the acting commander. The military
RSS