Why a dispute over a Hong Kong murder suspect is giving Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen an election edge

The row over Chan Tong-kai’s case is amplifying the ruling party’s position as an upholder of the island’s ‘sovereignty’, analysts say

But Tsai ‘will need more than the furore’ to win next year’s presidential race

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Murder suspect Chan Tong-kai leaves custody in Hong Kong on Wednesday. Photo: Reuters

Sarah Zhengin BeijingandKinling Loin Beijing

Published: 10:21pm, 23 Oct 2019Updated: 6:13am, 24 Oct 2019

The row between Taiwan and Hong Kong over the fate of murder suspect Chan Tong-kai, whose case has led to more than four months of extradition bill protests in the city, is playing out in favour of Taiwan’s ruling party ahead the island’s presidential election next year, analysts say.

The governments of Taiwan and Hong Kong have clashed over the next step in prosecuting Chan, a 20-year-old Hong Kong resident who admitted killing his pregnant girlfriend in Taiwan last year.

Each side accuses the other of politicising the case, with Taipei refusing Chan’s offer to surrender himself over fears it would affirm Beijing’s position that Taiwan is not a separate jurisdiction from mainland China.

The Hong Kong government, which is semi-autonomous from Beijing, has urged Taipei to accept Chan’s voluntary surrender, but Taiwanese officials have insisted that he can only be extradited under a formal mutual legal assistance framework.

Observers say that Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen is using the dispute to show her independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) as “torch-bearers of sovereignty” for the island, while the mainland-friendly opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party has argued that the ruling government is putting politics over justice.