Taiwanese group sent home from Malaysia allowed to go free, angering Beijing
Island’s decision to release 20 nationals may have an impact on cross-strait relations, analysts say
Beijing has asked Taipei to pursue a telecoms fraud case involving dozens of Taiwanese after the island’s police declined to hold 20 nationals sent back from Malaysia on Saturday, Xinhua reported.
The police said the decision was based on a lack of evidence and absence of arrest warrants, the island’s Central News Agency said.
“By releasing the suspects, Taiwan authorities disregarded many victims’ interests and harmed them a second time. It also harmed the two sides’ cooperation in jointly cracking down on crimes,” said An Fengshan, the spokesman of the State Council’s Taiwan Affairs Office, which handles cross-strait relations.
Taiwan’s cabinet said the Ministry of Justice would liaise with mainland authorities and request additional information about the case. Taiwan “would not shield nationals who break the law”, said spokesman Sun Lih-chyun.
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The 20 individuals left Kuala Lumpur aboard an Air Asia flight and arrived at Taoyuan International Airport in Taipei around 2am. They were released after agreeing to assist in any further
investigation.
Another 32 Taiwanese who have been arrested in Malaysia were expected to be returned to the island soon. According to Xinhua, they were among 117 Chinese detained late last month over suspected telecoms fraud in the Southeast Asian nation following a joint investigation. Many of the victims allegedly reside on the mainland.
The deputy head of the Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau Huang Chia-lu said
the deportation decision was made in light of the individuals’ nationality.
Transnational crime involving Chinese began to complicate cross-strait relations after Kenyan authorities sent 45 Taiwanese wanted for phone fraud back to the mainland last week, despite Taipei’s objections. Legal experts said the move was in line with the Palermo Convention, which covers cooperation over transnational crime and deportation of suspects to the jurisdiction where the victims are located.
The decision by the Taiwanese police to free the individuals decision triggered criticism from both Beijing-friendly and pro-independent political parities on the self-ruled island.
Hsu Yung-ming, a legislator from the pro-independent New Power Party accused the Justice Ministry of failing to carry out their duties, saying it failed to initially negotiate with Malaysia and mainland authorities once the fraud was discovered.
Beijing-friendly Kuomintang chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu said the release of the individuals would damage Taiwan’s international standing as the outside world might think Taiwan is “exporting fraud”.
Analysts from the mainland and Taiwan said bilateral relationships between Beijing and Kuala Lumpur might be affected by Malaysia’ s decision.
Li Fei, deputy director of Xiamen University’s Taiwan Research Institute, said they should be sent to the mainland given the case involved Chinese victims on residing there.
It would leave many Chinese to think Taiwan is a safe heaven for fraudsters
“Malaysia improperly sent the people back to Taiwan ... it only hurts the relationships among the three sides and the image of Malaysia and Taiwan,” Li said. “It would leave many Chinese to think Taiwan is a safe heaven for fraudsters.”
Yen Chen-shen from Taipei’s National Chengchi University, said the two sides should follow existing cross-strait agreements on fighting crime and judicial assistance. “Taiwan should dispatch cross-strait affairs and legal experts to Beijing to seek fair trial for the Taiwanese suspects,” he said, referring to the Kenyan case.
Beijing continued to defend its detention of the Taiwanese nationals, blaming law enforcement authorities in Taiwan for failing to crack down on phone scams.
