China’s new legal guidelines targeting advocates of Taiwanese independence, including allowing trials in absentia, are aimed at gaining jurisdiction, experts said on Monday.
The guidelines, issued on Friday last week with immediate effect, allow courts in China to try “Taiwan independence separatists” in absentia, with “diehard” advocates of independence convicted of inciting secession who also cause “grave harm to the state and the [Chinese] people” potentially being sentenced to death, Xinhua news agency reported.
Wu Se-chih (吳瑟致), director of Taiwan Thinktank’s China Research Center, said that if under China’s opaque judicial system a trial in absentia resulted in a guilty verdict, the defendant could be subject to an international arrest warrant.
Photo: CNA
Once such a warrant is issued, China would tell nations with which it has a mutual legal assistance treaty (MLAT) or other forms of legal agreements that the wanted person is a Chinese citizen, Wu said.
A trial in absentia would enforce Beijing’s “one China” principle regarding Taiwan, asserting that China has sovereignty over Taiwan and framing it as a domestic matter, Wu added.
That could pressure other nations, especially those with a MLAT or friendly diplomatic relations with China, to assist in related arrests or extraditions, he said, adding that this long-arm jurisdiction was aimed at asserting jurisdiction over Taiwan.
However, Wu said that many democratic nations provide assistance to individuals involved in political cases and would not extradite them to China.
That is especially true, given China’s weakened global influence, which makes it harder for Beijing to use economic incentives or pressure to compel other nations to cooperate as it has done in the past, he said.
Thirty-nine nations have extradition treaties with China, including popular travel destinations for Taiwanese, such as South Korea, Vietnam and Thailand, according to Chinese Ministry of Justice data.
There are also 55 nations that have signed treaties with China on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters, including the US, Japan and Australia, which mostly involves collecting and exchanging information.
The timing of China’s move was also significant, said Arthur Wang (王智盛), secretary-general of the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association and an expert on cross-strait relations.
He said the new guidelines were issued on Friday last week because the date was about one month after President William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20.
“After a month of observation, they [Chinese officials] found they could not restrain Lai’s responses [to cross-strait relations],” Wang said. “Therefore, I believe this was a preset legal tool in their toolbox for sanctions against Taiwan.”
In his inaugural address on May 20, Lai called on Beijing to acknowledge Taiwan’s government and reiterated his stance that the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other.
Despite criticism from Beijing that the statement “was an assertion of Taiwanese independence,” Lai on May 30 said that what he had said was the truth and he did not intend to provoke.
When asked why Chinese authorities were taking a legal approach, Wang said that China has shifted its strategy from infiltration and cognitive warfare against Taiwan to a new type of legal warfare.
This new strategy uses legal discourse to assert China’s sovereignty and jurisdiction over Taiwan, supported by its influence in international law, he said.
“Chinese military aircraft circling Taiwan and crossing the median line have become tactics that everyone has seen through,” Wang said. “However, this new type of legal warfare might create new fears and pressures for the Taiwanese people.”
He said that China has struggled to find a strategy to counter the internationalization of the Taiwan issue, leading to its authorities seeking a fundamental solution through legal means.
“By defining Taiwan independence and establishing long-arm jurisdiction and trials in absentia, China aims to curb the further internationalization of the Taiwan issue and prevent any subsequent adverse impact on its Taiwan policy,” Wang said.
A preclearance service to facilitate entry for people traveling to select airports in Japan would be available from Thursday next week to Feb. 25 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said on Tuesday. The service was first made available to Taiwanese travelers throughout the winter vacation of 2024 and during the Lunar New Year holiday. In addition to flights to the Japanese cities of Hakodate, Asahikawa, Akita, Sendai, Niigata, Okayama, Takamatsu, Kumamoto and Kagoshima, the service would be available to travelers to Kobe and Oita. The service can be accessed by passengers of 15 flight routes operated by
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
MORE FALL: An investigation into one of Xi’s key cronies, part of a broader ‘anti-corruption’ drive, indicates that he might have a deep distrust in the military, an expert said China’s latest military purge underscores systemic risks in its shift from collective leadership to sole rule under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), and could disrupt its chain of command and military capabilities, a national security official said yesterday. If decisionmaking within the Chinese Communist Party has become “irrational” under one-man rule, the Taiwan Strait and the regional situation must be approached with extreme caution, given unforeseen risks, they added. The anonymous official made the remarks as China’s Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia (張又俠) and Joint Staff Department Chief of Staff Liu Zhenli (劉振立) were reportedly being investigated for suspected “serious
Taiwanese and US defense groups are collaborating to introduce deployable, semi-autonomous manufacturing systems for drones and components in a boost to the nation’s supply chain resilience. Taiwan’s G-Tech Optroelectronics Corp subsidiary GTOC and the US’ Aerkomm Inc on Friday announced an agreement with fellow US-based Firestorm Lab to adopt the latter’s xCell, a technology featuring 3D printers fitted in 6.1m container units. The systems enable aerial platforms and parts to be produced in high volumes from dispersed nodes capable of rapid redeployment, to minimize the risk of enemy strikes and to meet field requirements, they said. Firestorm chief technology officer Ian Muceus said
RSS