A government delegation headed by Ministry of Justice officials arrived in Beijing yesterday and was greeted by Chinese officials before going to talks dealing with 45 Taiwanese deported from Kenya to China over allegations of telecommunications fraud.
Department of International and Cross-Strait Legal Affairs Director Chen Wen-chi (陳文琪) led a 10-member group that included officials from the Mainland Affairs Council, the Straits Exchange Foundation and the Criminal Investigation Bureau.
Contrary to expectations, the delegation did not visit the detention center in Beijing’s Haidian District yesterday afternoon, where the suspects are being held.
Photo: CNA
Chinese authorities had invited some media outlets from Taiwan and China to enter the facility, with the aim of showing that the Taiwanese were being treated humanely.
Chinese officials said that arrangements were made for the delegation to visit the detention center in the afternoon so the visitors could see for themselves the facility’s conditions and talk to the suspects.
The delegation departed from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday morning after postponing the trip for two days due to communication issues with Chinese authorities.
“For cases already subject to a judicial probe, we hope to move in the direction of joint investigations with China, with a division of labor between the two sides,” Chen said at the airport.
Chen said the delegation would handle matters in China according to the framework of the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement (海峽兩岸共同打擊犯罪及司法互助協議), so discussions would be arranged by the Chinese Ministry of Public Security.
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
Taiwan’s passport ranked 34th in the world, with access to 141 visa-free destinations, according to the latest update to the Henley Passport Index released today. The index put together by Henley & Partners ranks 199 passports globally based on the number of destinations holders can access without a visa out of 227, and is updated monthly. The 141 visa-free destinations for Taiwanese passport holders are a slight decrease from last year, when holders had access to 145 destinations. Botswana and Columbia are among the countries that have recently ended visa-free status for Taiwanese after “bowing to pressure from the Chinese government,” the Ministry
‘SIGN OF DANGER’: Beijing has never directly named Taiwanese leaders before, so China is saying that its actions are aimed at the DPP, a foundation official said National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence. The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday. “If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra
HEALTHCARE: Following a 2022 Constitutional Court ruling, Taiwanese traveling overseas for six months would no longer be able to suspend their insurance Measures allowing people to suspend National Health Insurance (NHI) services if they plan to leave the country for six months would be abolished starting Dec. 23, NHIA Director-General Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said yesterday. The decision followed the Constitutional Court’s ruling in 2022 that the regulation was unconstitutional and that it would invalidate the regulation automatically unless the NHIA amended it to conform with the Constitution. The agency would amend the regulations to remove the articles and sections that allow the suspension of NHI services, and also introduce provisional clauses for those who suspended their NHI services before Dec. 23, Shih said. According to
RSS