Beijing ‘takes aim at Taiwan’s president-elect’ over deportations
Island’s legislature says ‘violent’ actions will only feed into public negative view of the mainland
Tensions continue to simmer over the deportation of Taiwanese fraud suspects to the mainland amid fears that cross-strait relations will be further strained ahead of the investiture of Taiwan’s new president next month.
Analysts said the latest dispute between mainland China and Taiwan over a string of deportation controversies in countries such as Kenya, Malaysia and Indonesia was part of Beijing’s diplomatic offensive targeting president-elect Tsai Ing-wen from the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party.
While mainland China and Taiwan aresparring over whether Malaysia should repatriate 52 Taiwanese wire fraud suspects to the mainland as Beijing requested, the island’s Legislative Yuan yesterday denounced the mainland and Kenya for forcibly deporting 45 Taiwanesecitizens involved in fraud allegations to the mainland.
In a strongly worded statement, Taiwanese legislators from across the political spectrum accused Beijing of deliberately ignoring a tacit 2011 agreement on dealing with crimes committed by Taiwanese ormainlanders in a third country and severely undermining cross-strait ties.
“Such violent actions only create negative perceptions among the Taiwanese public,” the statement said.
Taiwan bids to stop Chinese suspects in Malaysia being deported to mainland China
Taiwan’s foreign ministry confirmed that Malaysia had delayed a flight, where an initial group of 20 fraud suspects was set to return to Taiwan yesterday. Malaysian officials were quoted by the Associated Press as saying the deportation case was still under discussion and the postponement was because of Beijing’s insistence that the suspects be sent to the mainland.
In a separate case, Taiwan’s Foreign Minister David Lin Yung-lo confirmed earlier this week that another 31 Taiwanese citizens were detained in Indonesia on suspicion of committing wire fraud, but he promised the Taiwanese would not be deported to the mainland, citing the island’s warm relations with Jakarta.
Beijing continued to defend its detention of the Taiwanese nationals, blaming law enforcement authorities in Taiwan for failing to crack down on rampant phone scams mainly targeting mainland victims. Two Taiwanese suspects who were repatriated from Kenya confessed on state broadcaster CCTV yesterday to their alleged involvement in wire fraud against victims on the mainland.
Such violent actions only create negative perceptions among the Taiwanese public
Their confessions were also highlighted in a story by Xinhua news agency on Friday shedding light on the ongoing investigation. Analysts from both the mainland and Taiwan have noted that such a trial by media would fuel public resentment on the island towards Beijing.
Li Fei, deputy director of Xiamen University’s Taiwan Research Institute, said the dispute over deportation cases was another warning shot from Beijing against Tsai following her crushing victory over the mainland-friendly Kuomintang administration this year.
