A recent kidnapping case in Hsinchu shocked the entire nation, but fortunately, the Taipei police cracked the case quickly. At the same time, the media exhibited a rarely-seen and certainly praise-worthy cooperative attitude by not making the investigation public. Although the case has been successfully resolved and the hostages safely rescued, the issue of cross-strait crimes highlighted by the case is indeed worthy of more in-depth examination.
Had the police cracked the case just a few days later, in view of the wooden box prepared by the kidnappers, the hostages might have been sent to China. The complexity and difficulties of the case would thereby increase. Eventually, the case may simply have become another unsolved mystery. The most unthinkable aspect is that some participants of the kidnapping were actually stowaways from China, effectively setting a precedent in cross-strait criminal cooperation. Simply put, with the inevitable rise of cross-strait exchanges, whether economic, tourist, religious, cultural, or academic, cross-strait crimes may continue to increase as well.
An instinctive reaction of many Taiwanese criminals is to escape to China. Therefore, in the foreseeable future, criminal cooperation on both sides of the Taiwan Strait will likely happen again, seriously hampering criminal investigations.
As criminals across the strait begin to build up channels of cooperation, cross-strait cooperation by authorities to crack down on cross-strait crime seems not only unlikely to be successful, but not even attempted given the lack of political dialogue.
Realistically speaking, China appears to have become a safe haven for escaped criminals from Taiwan. Media reports indicate that convicts escaping to China have generally been able to evade the pursuit of Taiwanese police, and live in peace in China. We don't seem to have any cases of Taiwanese convicts arrested and deported to Taiwan by Chinese law enforcement officials.
The current situation is one in which both smooth-running cross-strait exchanges as well as crimes exist as a result of geographical, cultural, and linguistic convenience. However, a joint criminal crackdown mechanism remains out of reach due to a lack of official communication between the two sides resulting from political considerations.
As a result, the chances of criminals in Taiwan evading the law by finding ways to escape to China or send important evidence or witnesses there increases greatly. Therefore, if Taiwan's government cannot effectively block the "escape route" from Taiwan to China, then similar cases will continue, representing a serious deficiency in criminal investigation in Taiwan.
A blocking mechanism does not seem to have an optimistic future in view of the poor political interactions across the Taiwan Strait. If China is willing to pay more attention to this issue, it will at least help China in terms of winning the recognition of Taiwan's people, and possibly enhance China's international image. Perhaps because of the consideration of "face," the Beijing government finds it hard to offer any official assistance to Taiwan.
If China is willing to offer Taiwan unofficial assistance through the establishment of more unofficial cross-strait police cooperation, and it should be pointed out that an enthusiastic attitude by either side may accomplish this goal, the increase in cross-strait crimes may be effectively contained.
Yang Yung-nane is a professor in the department of Administrative Management of the Central Police University.
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