Taipei won’t sign any extradition deal with Hong Kong if it implies Taiwan is part of China, official says
- Huang Ting-hui, who handles island’s affairs concerning Hong Kong, says any act that ‘destroys’ Taiwanese sovereignty is unacceptable
- Proposed amendment could be used to send Taiwanese people in Hong Kong to mainland China to face trial, some fear
The Taipei government will not sign any extradition deal with Hong Kong that has potential implications for the one-China principle, a Taiwanese official overseeing Hong Kong affairs has said.
Huang Ting-hui, who is tasked with handling affairs concerning Hong Kong, Macau, Inner Mongolia and Tibet at the Mainland Affairs Council, also stressed that any act aimed at “destroying the national sovereignty” of the self-governing island would not be deemed acceptable, according to a report by Taiwan’s official Central News Agency. The one-China policy considers Taiwan a part of China.
The official asked the Hong Kong government to consider the well-being of the people on both sides, noting that the city government’s plan to amend laws to make it easier to extradite fugitives had already sparked public concerns in Hong Kong, the report said.
The proposal comes in the wake of a murder case last year involving a Hong Kong man who returned to the city after allegedly killing his girlfriend while they were on holiday in Taiwan.
The Hong Kong government said the case exposed a loophole in the current system – the suspect has not been sent to Taiwan to face charges as the city’s Fugitive Offenders Ordinance and the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Ordinance do not apply to Taiwan.
Both ordinances currently expressly exclude “any other part of the People’s Republic of China”, which Hong Kong’s authorities and laws have always viewed as including Taiwan. Hong Kong security minister John Lee Ka-chiu stated the same position when speaking to lawmakers last Friday.