The government yesterday criticized a Spanish court’s citation of the “one China” principle as the basis for its decision to deport 121 fraud suspects, including some Taiwanese, to China as per Beijing’s request, and urged China to refrain from suppressing Taiwan in the international community to avoid stoking grievances among Taiwanese.
In a news release yesterday, the Mainland Affairs Council expressed its regret and discontent over the Spanish National Court’s decision on Friday to extradite 121 Chinese and Taiwanese suspected of working for telecom fraud rings.
A total of 269 suspects were reportedly arrested in relation to the case in December last year.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it does not know how many of the suspects are Taiwanese, as officials have been unable to visit the suspects to identify them.
“The Republic of China is a sovereign state, the existence of which China must bring itself to accept,” the council said, adding that Beijing’s approach to suppressing Taiwan internationally will not be accepted.
As the case is ongoing, the ministry and other government agencies are to continue to keep close tabs on its development, the council said.
The Washington Post on Friday reported that although the suspects’ lawyers argued against China’s extradition request on the grounds of the Taiwanese suspects’ nationality, the court said international law is increasingly accepting of the “one China” principle.
“The international community, except for those countries with which [Taiwan] has diplomatic relations, consider Taiwan to be part of China and take the view that its independence cannot be achieved unilaterally,” the Washington Post quoted the ruling as saying.
The decision can still be appealed to a higher tribunal and needs to be signed off by the Spanish government, it added.
The ministry yesterday in a news release dismissed the remarks as a “biased comment.”
“The ministry calls on the Spanish government to uphold the principles of nationality, proportion and humanity when deliberating the final course of action,” the ministry said. “Our government is willing to join hands with our Spanish counterpart in combating cross-border crimes.”
Shortly after the case came to light, the ministry said its representative office in Spain established a task force to engage with relevant Spanish agencies to safeguard the Taiwanese suspects’ judicial rights.
However, the ministry urged people not to engage in international crimes to avoid damaging the nation’s image.
The pending deportation is the latest in a series of similar cases that began in April last year, when scores of Taiwanese fraud suspects were deported from Kenya to China.
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