The recent deportation by Manila of 14 Taiwanese fraud suspects to China has led to calls on Taipei to reassess cross-strait relations, including next week’s visit by Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait envoy Chen Yunlin (陳雲林).
While media attention has focused primarily on the unresolved diplomatic spat between Taiwan and the Philippines, which sent the 14 to China on a chartered flight on Feb. 2, less has been said about the incident’s implications on cross-strait judicial agreements.
The deportation was the first case of Taiwanese being deported to China. Along with 10 Chinese suspects, the 14 are in detention in China for operating an international telephone fraud scheme aimed at Chinese in several -provinces. -Government -officials said the 14 could be returned to Taiwan under a joint crime-fighting agreement signed in 2009.
In a joint statement yesterday, civic organizations asked that the matter be resolved and that Beijing respect international human rights agreements in dealing with the 14 before Taiwan agrees to accommodate Chen on his visit next week.
“If Beijing does not provide a positive response before Feb. 22 [the day before Chen’s expected arrival], [Taiwan] should not allow the visit,” the statement by the Cross-Strait Agreement Watch Alliance and the Judicial Reform Foundation said.
While Beijing has already agreed to allow family members to visit the 14 suspects in Beijing, Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強), a lawyer with the alliance, said Taiwan’s requests should go one step further.
“Neither the protections afforded by China’s [criminal laws] nor its implementations fulfill human rights protection guidelines,” Lai said, adding that Beijing should also allow rights organizations to visit the -suspects and find them lawyers.
Some academics said the case had less to do now with Manila than Beijing, mostly because of imprecise language in the cross-strait agreements, including the Agreement on Joint Cross-Strait Crime-Fighting and Mutual Judicial Assistance.
“There was nothing wrong with the decision by the Philippines,” said Yang Yun-hua (楊雲驊), an assistant professor of law at National Chengchi University, in terms of jurisdiction and the location where the crimes were committed.
While under Taiwan’s criminal law, crimes committed in China are treated as if they occurred in Taiwan — the result of an antiquated Republic of China Constitution — this clause is not fully understood by other countries, he said.
How would Taiwan prosecute the suspects, given the lack of evidence, witnesses and victims, he asked. The government should be less concerned with their recovery than making sure Beijing gives them a fair trial under international law, he said.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
Taiwanese barista Xie Yi-chen (謝溢宸) recently triumphed at the 2024 World Coffee Championships, taking home 1st place in the World Latte Art category. Xie, 28, impressed the judges in the final round with patterns of a whale, a moose, and a dragon in the three-day competition that took place in Copenhagen, Denmark from June 27-29, clinching the title of latte art world champion during his first time representing Taiwan on the world stage. At a press conference held by the Taiwan Coffee Association on Thursday, Xie said that creating latte art gives him a tremendous feeling of achievement. Speaking about his entries in
The annual Taipei Summer Festival, which starts today, is to tone down its fireworks displays, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said on Monday. Fireworks displays are to be held at the riverside site in Datong District’s (大同) Dadaocheng (大稻埕) area on four days at this year’s festival, with the first today, and then on Wednesday next week, July 31 and Aug. 10, the department said. There were eight displays last year, with the reduction aimed at minimizing inconvenience to local residents, it said. The first three shows, which are all on Wednesdays, are to last for five minutes, while the final
EYE ON MAYORS: The DPP would file a complaint with the Control Yuan against Ko and Chiang over their handling of reports of abuse at a preschool in the city The Taipei City Government’s belated response under Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) and his predecessor, Taiwan People’s Party Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), to alleged child sex abuse at a kindergarten resulted in more children being victimized, two Taipei City Councilors said yesterday. A Taipei preschool teacher has been charged with sexually abusing six children from 2021 to last year at a school registered to his mother. Prosecutors are reportedly considering additional charges amid a wave of new accusations allegedly linking the suspect to 20 other abused children and the discovery at his residence of more than 600 sexually explicit videos featuring minors. The