Beijing must come clean on arbitrary detention of Taiwanese or risk hurting its soft power ambitions
- Since 2017, at least four Taiwanese have been arbitrarily detained in mainland China and isolated from family and lawyers because of a breakdown in cross-strait relations
- International pressure is losing effectiveness as China grows in economic clout but Beijing’s intransigence will only damage its international standing.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office claimed that all three are under investigation for national security offences pending trial. Will other cases be confirmed?
Each time a detention was belatedly acknowledged, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office broke the news in press conferences, rather than via the official channel prescribed by the agreement.
Beijing’s compliance with the notification requirement would have permitted Taiwan to promptly learn about the detentions, obtain further information and register any protests. It would have also enabled family visits. China’s violations of these basic protections left the detainees helpless.
There is very little that families in Taiwan can do for detained loved ones. Even if detainees avoid residential surveillance and are processed in normal detention centres, police can still refuse lawyers’ requests for client meetings simply by claiming that it is a matter of national security.
Moreover, as shown by Lee Ming-che’s case, as well as those involving many Chinese nationals, in politically sensitive cases, the Chinese government usually insists on appointing defence lawyers who can be relied upon not to challenge the charges, conduct a serious investigation or attempt to present witnesses at trial. In any event, the court is openly controlled by the Communist Party.
From Singapore to Sweden, China’s influence campaign is backfiring
While awaiting an improvement in cross-strait relations and a moderation of Beijing’s repression, perhaps the most that can be done – for all victims of arbitrary detention in China – is to enhance world knowledge of these violations of human rights and international obligations, and summon enlightened opinion in opposition.
Certainly, the people of Taiwan will continue to demand that Beijing at least live up to the modest commitments made in the cross-strait mutual judicial assistance agreement. Will the world settle for less?
Yu-Jie Chen, a Taiwan lawyer, is a Global Academic Fellow at Hong Kong University’s Faculty of Law and an affiliated scholar of NYU’s US-Asia Law Institute. Jerome A. Cohen, adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, is professor of law at NYU and founding director of its US-Asia Law Institute
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