Kenya does not have official relations with democratic Taiwan and
considers the island part of "one China", in line with the position of
Communist Party leaders in Beijing
Taiwanese deported from Kenya "suspected of fraud in China"(Emirates247)
A group of Taiwanese deported from Kenya to China
after being acquitted in a cyber crime case are wanted for suspected
fraud in China, the Chinese government said on Wednesday, in a case that
has enraged Taiwan which has accused Beijing of kidnap.
The Kenyan government said the people were in Kenya illegally and were being sent back to where they had come from.
Kenya
does not have official relations with democratic Taiwan and considers
the island part of "one China", in line with the position of Communist
Party leaders in Beijing.
China's Ministry of
Public Security, in a statement released via the official Xinhua news
agency, said Kenya had decided to deport 32 Chinese and 45 Taiwanese to
China, of whom 10 had already arrived and another 67 would land on
Wednesday.
Taiwanese had been heavily involved in
telecoms fraud in China and had caused huge losses, with some victims
killing themselves, the ministry said.
The group
detained in Kenya had operated out of Nairobi and were suspected of
cheating people out of millions of yuan across nine provinces and cities
in China, and as most the victims were in China, they would be
prosecuted there, it added.
China had informed
Taiwan of the situation and would invite Taiwan law enforcement
officials to visit to discuss how best to tackle such fraud, the
ministry said.
An Fengshan, spokesman for China's Taiwan Affairs Office, said Taiwan needed to view the case rationally.
"The victims abhor this kind of fraud. I hope the Taiwan side can give more thought to the victims when it looks at this issue," he told a news conference carried live on Chinese television.
China
views Taiwan as a wayward province and has not ruled out the use of
force to ensure unification. Defeated Nationalist forces fled to the
island in 1949 after the civil war with the Communists who have remained
in control in Beijing since then.
Only 22
countries recognise Taiwan as the Republic of China, with most,
including Kenya, having diplomatic relations with the People's Republic
of China, with its leaders in Beijing.
Taiwanese lawmakers grilled government officials during parliamentary committee sessions about the case.
"The Chinese judicial system is in question for many people in Taiwan," said Lo Chih-cheng, a lawmaker for the ruling pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party. "They are wondering if those people can get a fair trial in China."
Some
comments on social media questioned whether a precedent was being set
of Taiwanese abroad being "taken away" by China, drawing a parallel with
the case of five booksellers in Chinese-controlled Hong Kong who
temporarily went missing in mysterious circumstances.
Hong
Kong authorities are still waiting for detailed explanations from China
regarding the booksellers, who produced and sold gossipy books critical
of Chinese leaders, amid suspicion among some that they were abducted
by Chinese agents. China has denied any wrongdoing.
China's
influential state-run tabloid the Global Times said Kenya was right to
send the people to China and that Beijing was in the right.
"The mainland's handling of the case is supported by international laws," it said in an editorial.
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