Former chairwoman of the board of the Central Broadcasting System Gloria Chu
Just when people thought justice had prevailed and that she would be denied entry, we found out in shock that she had indeed made it into the US.
Everyone immediately attributed Chou's entry in the US to Taiwan's lack of international recognition and respect. The truth of the matter is that the case was handled by the US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) in accordance with its procedures. From a US legal standpoint, the case isn't all that sensational. What sensationalized the case were Chou's melodramatic performance and moves.
According to the US Immigration and Naturalization Act, aliens who have been convicted of a crime, other than purely political offenses, may be excluded from admission. This means that the INS officials did not comply with the prosecutor's request to deny Chou admission because she has not been convicted of a crime yet. In fact, she has not even been formally charged. No ground exists to deny Chou entry under the circumstances. All the outcries and outrage about injustice and insults against Taiwan were unfounded.
Once she was in the US, rumors began to circulate that Chou may have requested political asylum there. In response, the director of the Government Information Office (GIO) came out and said that in the event Chou requested asylum, he would certainly deny the validity of her claim.
First of all, what did the director think could possibly be accomplished by such a statement? It would certainly have no impact on any INS decision on political asylum. In addition, the chance of Chou being granted such asylum is so slim that she is unlikely to make a request, unless her only purpose is to buy time by forcing the INS to run through the normal procedures in handling asylum cases.
Political asylum is granted to those with "well-founded fear" of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. As the US law places a cap on the number of people who may obtain political asylum each year, the INS scrutinizes each claim very closely. Since Chou is under investigation for embezzlement, she certainly has no reason to claim persecution on any of the grounds specified by law.
The people of Taiwan are truly a complicated group, torn between feelings of superiority and inferiority. On the one hand, we are very proud of our democratic and economic accomplishments (although, these days we may be less certain about the latter). However, we become extremely sensitive and paranoid about the slightest hint of disrespect due to our lack of international recognition.
The circumstances surrounding Chou's case are rather unique and are unlikely to repeat itself. However, there are many fugitives who have escaped overseas. How to bring these criminals back to Taiwan, when most countries do not have extradition treaties with us, deserves much more of our concern.
Amy Wu is a member of the teaching faculty at the Chung Yuan Christian University and a member of the state bars of California and New York.
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