The financial scandal involving Rebar Asia Pacific Group that erupted last week once again highlights the need for a cross-strait mechanism for extraditing criminals. In the absence of such measures, unscrupulous criminals will continue taking advantage of and profiting from the political impasse between Taiwan and China to avoid suffering the repercussions of their wrongdoings.
That criminals big and small have been seeking a haven across the Strait to avoid punishment is not a new phenomenon. In fact, this practice has become so commonplace that the only reason people like Wang You-theng (
In any other country, the authorities would request the extradition of criminals via formal channels and official agreements. Taiwan does not enjoy such recourse as it only has formal agreements with a handful of countries. This stems from the fact that most countries do not recognize Taiwan as a sovereign state -- including the country where most Taiwanese fugitives flee after committing a crime, China.
It is quite unlikely that a bilateral treaty on extradition with Beijing will be inked anytime soon. Taipei should nevertheless continue to insist on establishing a system, however informal, for the extradition of wanted individuals.
A precedent was set in the 1990s when -- with assistance from the Red Cross -- Taipei and Beijing reached an agreement on the return of illegal Chinese immigrants to China.
China's image abroad has been greatly damaged by the fact that it has become a haven of choice for criminals fleeing prosecution. Beijing's inaction on this issue is in stark contrast to other countries' assistance when Beijing seeks the extradition of corrupt Chinese officials.
Last year, Beijing signed a bilateral extradition treaty with Spain -- the first developed country to enter such a treaty with China. A similar agreement with France is expected soon. Reacting to a growing number of corrupt former Chinese officials fleeing to developed countries, Beijing has been stepping up its efforts to sign extradition treaties with many of them.
What makes matters worse for Taiwan is that many of the criminals who run off to China use their stolen money to finance projects there. Adding salt to the wound, every now and then some of these criminals are wined and dined by Chinese officials. Such scenes engender great resentment, especially on the part of hardworking Taiwanese who have lost life-long savings to these criminals.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) has caused havoc with his attempts to overturn the democratic and constitutional order in the legislature. If we look at this devolution from the context of a transition to democracy from authoritarianism in a culturally Chinese sense — that of zhonghua (中華) — then we are playing witness to a servile spirit from a millennia-old form of totalitarianism that is intent on damaging the nation’s hard-won democracy. This servile spirit is ingrained in Chinese culture. About a century ago, Chinese satirist and author Lu Xun (魯迅) saw through the servile nature of
In their New York Times bestseller How Democracies Die, Harvard political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt said that democracies today “may die at the hands not of generals but of elected leaders. Many government efforts to subvert democracy are ‘legal,’ in the sense that they are approved by the legislature or accepted by the courts. They may even be portrayed as efforts to improve democracy — making the judiciary more efficient, combating corruption, or cleaning up the electoral process.” Moreover, the two authors observe that those who denounce such legal threats to democracy are often “dismissed as exaggerating or
Monday was the 37th anniversary of former president Chiang Ching-kuo’s (蔣經國) death. Chiang — a son of former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), who had implemented party-state rule and martial law in Taiwan — has a complicated legacy. Whether one looks at his time in power in a positive or negative light depends very much on who they are, and what their relationship with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is. Although toward the end of his life Chiang Ching-kuo lifted martial law and steered Taiwan onto the path of democratization, these changes were forced upon him by internal and external pressures,
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus in the Legislative Yuan has made an internal decision to freeze NT$1.8 billion (US$54.7 million) of the indigenous submarine project’s NT$2 billion budget. This means that up to 90 percent of the budget cannot be utilized. It would only be accessible if the legislature agrees to lift the freeze sometime in the future. However, for Taiwan to construct its own submarines, it must rely on foreign support for several key pieces of equipment and technology. These foreign supporters would also be forced to endure significant pressure, infiltration and influence from Beijing. In other words,
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