Mainland Affairs Council Minister Andrew Hsia (夏立言) yesterday urged China to present concrete evidence backing figures it released to demonstrate the prevalence of Taiwanese-orchestrated telecommunications fraud, while calling for a new round of negotiations on a cross-strait pact to jointly fight crime.
Hsia made the remarks on the sidelines of a meeting of the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee, which invited him speak and answer questions about Kenya’s deportation of 45 Taiwanese from Nairobi to Beijing on Friday last week and on Tuesday.
“I have seen the frightening numbers of [telecom scam] victims published by Chinese authorities. However, we hope they can present some evidence to back the figures so that they are not just conjecture,” Hsia said.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
China is also urged to show evidence that its forcible seizure of the Taiwanese conformed with procedural justice, Hsia said.
Hsia was referring to a statement issued by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office on Wednesday, in which the office justified the deportation of the Taiwanese as an attempt to safeguard the rights and interests of Chinese who have affected by telecom fraud orchestrated by Taiwanese.
Twenty-three of the deported Taiwanese were acquitted by a Kenyan court on Friday last week in a 2014 telecom fraud case, while the other 22 Taiwanese were among a group of 41 suspects arrested by Kenyan police on the same day.
According to a statement, the 23 acquitted Taiwanese were involved in a telecom fraud ring that swindled more than 100 Chinese by pretending to be Chinese public security officials, making more than 6 million yuan (US$925,198).
“It is estimated that Taiwanese fraudsters have made more than 10 billion yuan annually from Chinese in recent years… These scams have bankrupted many families and corporations, inflicting tremendous physical and mental pain on victims. Some even committed suicide as a result,” the statement said, calling for compassion.
Expressing confidence that the Kenya incident would result in better cross-strait agreements about joint crime-fighting, Hsia said the Philippines’ controversial deportation of 14 Taiwanese fraud suspects to China in 2011 also created an unpleasant cross-strait conflict at the time, but both Taipei and Beijing were able to reach an agreement following five months of negotiations.
The agreement, reached under the framework of the 2009 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), said that Taiwanese and Chinese who commit wrongdoings in a foreign nation should be deported to their respective countries.
“Their failure to honor the agreement this time was probably due to the emergence of new types of fraud. With the number of fraudsters and victims on the rise, we hope to engage in further talks to determine whether we need to step up our crime-fighting efforts,” Hsia said.
Hsia said that whether Taiwan should impose more stringent penalties for fraud was an issue worthy of serious consideration.
Chinese spouse and influencer Guan Guan’s (關關) residency permit has been revoked for repeatedly posting pro-China videos that threaten national security, the National Immigration Agency confirmed today. Guan Guan has said many controversial statements in her videos posted to Douyin (抖音), including “the red flag will soon be painted all over Taiwan” and “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China,” and expressing hope for expedited reunification. The agency last year received multiple reports alleging that Guan Guan had advocated for armed reunification. After verifying the reports, the agency last month issued a notice requiring her to appear and explain her actions. Guan
GIVE AND TAKE: Blood demand continues to rise each year, while fewer young donors are available due to the nation’s falling birthrate, a doctor said Blood donors can redeem points earned from donations to obtain limited edition Formosan black bear travel mugs, the Kaohsiung Blood Center said yesterday, as it announced a goal of stocking 20,000 units of blood prior to the Lunar New Year. The last month of the lunar year is National Blood Donation Month, when local centers seek to stockpile blood for use during the Lunar New Year holiday. The blood demand in southern Taiwan — including Tainan and Kaohsiung, as well as Chiayi, Pingtung, Penghu and Taitung counties — is about 2,000 units per day, the center said. The donation campaign aims to boost
A preclearance service to facilitate entry for people traveling to select airports in Japan would be available from Thursday next week to Feb. 25 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said on Tuesday. The service was first made available to Taiwanese travelers throughout the winter vacation of 2024 and during the Lunar New Year holiday. In addition to flights to the Japanese cities of Hakodate, Asahikawa, Akita, Sendai, Niigata, Okayama, Takamatsu, Kumamoto and Kagoshima, the service would be available to travelers to Kobe and Oita. The service can be accessed by passengers of 15 flight routes operated by
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) said a magnitude 4.9 earthquake that struck off the coast of eastern Taiwan yesterday was an independent event and part of a stress-adjustment process. The earthquake occurred at 4:47pm, with its epicenter at sea about 45.4km south of Yilan County Hall at a depth of 5.9km, the CWA said. The quake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in several townships in Yilan and neighboring Hualien County, where it measured 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the CWA said. Lin Po-yu (林柏佑), a division chief at the CWA's Seismological Center, told a news conference
RSS