Mainland Affairs Council Deputy (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) on Thursday called on China to resume cross-strait consultations as soon as possible and not allow politics to impede joint efforts to combat crime.
Chiu said that as part of an effort to stamp out cross-border telecom fraud, Taiwan has stepped up efforts to track and combat such criminal behavior by revising the law and introducing more severe punishments, with some indication that these measures are bearing fruit.
However, China’s unwillingness to cooperate with Taiwan makes it easier for the masterminds behind these criminal gangs to evade capture and harder to seize their ill-gotten gains, he said.
If China wants to combat crime, the priority should be to resume cross-strait consultations and not let politics get in the way of joint efforts to catch criminals, he said.
Chiu’s remarks came after Beijing insisted that Spain deport more than 200 suspects — including Taiwanese and Chinese — recently arrested in several Spanish cities for alleged telecom fraud on the grounds that the victims were all Chinese nationals.
Taiwan has strongly protested, saying that such a measure infringes on the rights of the Taiwanese suspects, who it said should be sent back to Taiwan to face investigation and trial.
This is not the first time Beijing has sought to have Taiwanese fraud suspects deported to China to face investigation. There have been several cases in recent years in which Taiwanese suspects arrested in Kenya, Malaysia, Cambodia, Philippines and other countries, were deported to China at the request of Beijing, which claimed the victims were predominantly in China.
In related news, the Ministry of Justice said it returned NT$945,900 (US$30,832) earlier this month to a Chinese national who was swindled by a Taiwanese fraud ring.
Under a 2009 agreement with China, the money was returned to the victim, surnamed Lu, who had been scammed into making several deposits in October 2014 into an account set up by a fraud ring, the ministry said.
The Taiwanese suspects were eventually caught by Taoyuan police, who worked with the ministry and Chinese authorities to collect evidence and returned the money to the victim, the ministry said.
It was the sixth time that Taiwan took action to return such funds under the terms of the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, it added.
It said that since April 2014, it has returned a total of NT$17.69 million to Chinese fraud victims.
China has sent back NT$14.42 million in swindled funds to Taiwan since then, in six separate cases, the ministry said.
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