The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has confirmed that 666 Taiwanese accused of telecom fraud and other crimes had been extradited to China from around the world since 2016, but did not specify when the extraditions took place.
MAC Minister Chiu Tai-san (邱太三) was speaking on Wednesday after human rights organization Safeguard Defenders on Tuesday released a report showing that more than 600 Taiwanese had been extradited to China between 2016 and 2019.
In 2016, Beijing authorities began increasing their efforts to have Taiwanese sent to China if they were accused of crimes in other countries involving victims from China, Chiu said.
Photo: Chung Li-hua, Taipei Times
The countries, which did not have diplomatic relations with Taiwan, but mostly had extradition treaties with China, often did so “without any consultation or prior notification to the Taiwanese authorities,” the report said.
Spain sent the most Taiwanese to China at 219, followed by Cambodia at 117, the report said.
The report said that “the majority of extraditions of Taiwanese nationals have taken place in the last five years,” although the organization had documented similar cases over the past decade.
Chiu did not elaborate why there had been an uptick in extraditions of Taiwanese since 2016, but attributed it to a change in Beijing’s policy.
Relations between Taiwan and China soured after President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) of the Democratic Progressive Party took office in 2016. Beijing has since cut official contacts with Taipei and increased its efforts to isolate Taiwan from the international community.
Chiu said that since July 2019, most of the Taiwanese arrested overseas for their involvement in fraud cases had been repatriated to Taiwan to be investigated and put on trial.
This was probably because the Chinese government knew that most of the illegal gains in those cases had been sent back to Taiwan, and that without working with Taiwan, it would be difficult to claim compensation for Chinese victims, he said.
The report also described the extraditions of Taiwanese as a “geopolitical” issue, as Beijing has used its extradition treaties with other countries to exert its control over Taiwan.
The council said it has repeatedly protested against China using extradition as a means to undermine Taiwan’s sovereignty.
It also urged Beijing to work with Taiwan to combat transnational crimes based on the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement (海峽兩岸共同打擊犯罪及司法互助協議), which was signed in 2009.
The agreement stipulates that law enforcement officials from Taiwan and China must work together to retrieve suspects and return them to their respective nations for trial.
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