The Hong Kong government’s proposal to amend its extradition rules was not targeted at Taiwan and covers other places, too, Hong Kong Secretary for Security John Lee (李家超) said in an interview broadcast yesterday.
Lee made the remarks after some Taiwanese politicians said the revision was politically motivated and questioned the plan to allow the surrender of fugitives to any jurisdiction with which the territory has not entered into a bilateral extradition agreement, including Taiwan, Macau and China.
Lee said that the proposed changes would not only cover cases involving Taiwanese, but would apply to jurisdictions that do not have an agreement with Hong Kong on handing over fugitives.
Taiwanese officials said that the proposal was based on Beijing’s “one China” principle, under which China defines Taiwan as part of its territory.
Although Taiwan has been seeking mutual judicial assistance agreements, including with Hong Kong, the government would not accept an extradition agreement that erodes the nation’s dignity and sovereignty, said Liu Yi-chun (劉怡君), a prosecutor at the Ministry of Justice’s Department of International and Cross-Strait Legal Affairs.
New Power Party Legislator Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) said that if the amendment were passed, China would treat Taiwan as part of its jurisdiction and more than 2 million Taiwanese who work and study in Hong Kong could face the same fate as Lee Ming-che (李明哲), a Taiwanese rights advocate who was detained in China.
In 2017 Lee was sentenced in China to five years in prison for subversion of state power, making him the first Taiwanese to be convicted of the offense.
Hong Kong’s Security Bureau on Feb. 12 submitted a proposal to the Hong Kong Legislative Council that rules on extradition be amended to facilitate two-way cooperation with countries or areas with which the territory has not inked extradition treaties.
The proposal was motivated by a case in which a Hong Kong woman was allegedly murdered by her boyfriend in Taiwan, the bureau said.
As Hong Kong does not have an extradition agreement with Taiwan, it cannot send the suspect to be prosecuted and stand trial in Taiwan, which has jurisdiction over the case.
As a result, the Hong Kong government proposed legislative revisions that would enable it to negotiate agreements with Taiwan and China on the extradition of fugitives on a case-by-case basis.
The proposal elicited mixed reactions in Hong Kong.
The Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong expressed its support, saying that public concern remains high over the murder case and the inability to prosecute the suspect without a formal extradition arrangement.
Democratic Party Legislator James To (涂謹申) voiced opposition to the proposal, citing concern that the Hong Kong government could abuse the amended legislation by granting Chinese government requests to extradite Hong Kongers to China.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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