The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said that it is “taking action” to prevent Taiwanese from facing possible arrest when visiting China-friendly Laos, Cambodia or Belarus.
The ministry has beefed up emergency response mechanisms at its overseas offices and is working closely with like-minded countries to counter the threat of China’s “long-arm jurisdiction” tactics, ministry spokesman Hsiao Kuang-wei (蕭光偉) told a news conference at the ministry, without offering details.
The ministry would continue to remind Taiwanese not to visit countries that could be pressured by China into extraditing Taiwanese wanted by Beijing, Hsiao said in response to a question about a report in the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) that Beijing could easily pressure the three countries into arresting Taiwanese that it deems to be independence advocates.
Photo: Huang Chin-hsuan, Taipei Times
A government official told the Liberty Times on condition of anonymity that Taiwanese should not visit Laos, Cambodia or Belarus, as the nations are highly likely to bow to Beijing’s demands and send Taiwanese to China to face prosecution.
Travel warnings for Laos and Cambodia mention extradition arrangements between the two countries and China, but not for Belarus.
The ministry has the highest-level “red” travel alert for Belarus due to the Russia-Ukraine war, as well as for parts of Cambodia due to its border conflict with Thailand.
It has an “orange” alert for Laos, citing the possibility of being lured into working for telecommunication fraud rings there.
Concern about so-called “long-arm jurisdiction” tactics by China heightened last month, when a Chinese legal expert told state-run China Central Television that Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋) should be pursued as a criminal.
The expert said that Shen was on China’s wanted list for advocating Taiwanese independence and should be pursued through Interpol and other global judicial assistance channels.
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