A government delegation headed by Ministry of Justice officials arrived in Beijing yesterday and was greeted by Chinese officials before going to talks dealing with 45 Taiwanese deported from Kenya to China over allegations of telecommunications fraud.
Department of International and Cross-Strait Legal Affairs Director Chen Wen-chi (陳文琪) led a 10-member group that included officials from the Mainland Affairs Council, the Straits Exchange Foundation and the Criminal Investigation Bureau.
Contrary to expectations, the delegation did not visit the detention center in Beijing’s Haidian District yesterday afternoon, where the suspects are being held.
Photo: CNA
Chinese authorities had invited some media outlets from Taiwan and China to enter the facility, with the aim of showing that the Taiwanese were being treated humanely.
Chinese officials said that arrangements were made for the delegation to visit the detention center in the afternoon so the visitors could see for themselves the facility’s conditions and talk to the suspects.
The delegation departed from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday morning after postponing the trip for two days due to communication issues with Chinese authorities.
“For cases already subject to a judicial probe, we hope to move in the direction of joint investigations with China, with a division of labor between the two sides,” Chen said at the airport.
Chen said the delegation would handle matters in China according to the framework 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), so discussions would be arranged by the Chinese Ministry of Public Security.
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