One-hundred-and-seven Taiwanese are being held in China after they were deported from other countries on suspicion of involvement in telecommunications fraud, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Deputy Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said on Thursday, adding that improving communication with Beijing to maintain existing mechanisms in cross-strait relations remains one of the government’s top priorities.
Chiu said 50 of the 107 Taiwanese were deported from Kenya, 32 from Malaysia and 25 from Cambodia.
The most recent deportation took place on Monday, when five Taiwanese were sent to China after they were acquitted on Friday last week by a Kenyan court on charges related to telecommunications fraud, Chiu said.
The five Taiwanese, as well as 35 Chinese, were arrested in December 2014 for allegedly running a telecommunications scam from an upmarket Nairobi suburb, but were acquitted after prosecutors failed to prove their case.
Despite Taiwan’s protests, Kenyan authorities caved to pressure from Beijing and handed the five Taiwanese over to Chinese authorities.
The five deportees are being held at a detention center in Haidian District in Beijing, along with 45 other Taiwanese telecoms fraud suspects who were deported from Kenya in April, the MAC said.
Chiu said the council would continue to negotiate with Beijing to secure the return of the detainees to Taiwan, where they will stand trial.
“The government will also seek visitation rights for the families of the detainees,” Chiu said.
The 25 Taiwanese suspects who were deported from Cambodia on June 24 are being held in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, while the 32 Taiwanese deported from Malaysia on April 30 are being held at two detention centers in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, Chiu said.
Chiu said that issues involving Republic of China authority need to be addressed via official dialogue and negotiations in order to better protect national interests and safeguard the rights and well-being of the people involved.
Chiu made the comments in response to a question on whether the Prospect Foundation and Foundation on Asia-Pacific Peace Studies — two private think tanks that have served as a “track-two” channel of communication with China, the US and Japan — will take on a more important role as the government has yet to decide on the leadership of the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF).
“Track two” communication refers to non-official or semi-official dialogue between nations when official contacts are severed for various reasons.
The SEF’s chairmanship was left vacant after Lin Join-sane (林中森) stepped down on May 13.
President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration has not named a successor.
Chinese officials in June said that Beijing has suspended official dialogue with Taipei since Tsai’s inauguration on May 20, accusing the new government of refusing to recognize the so-called “1992 consensus.”
Former MAC chairman Su Chi (蘇起) admitted in 2006 that he had made up the term in 2000 to refer to a tacit understanding of “one China,” with China and Taiwan each having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
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