More Taiwanese Scam Suspects Shipped to China

Went up to Longfeng Waterfall at the end of the Nantou 22 on Sunday. Not recommended. The scenery is nice, but getting to the 22 requires taking either the 3 or the 14. 

Busy as heck here with the semester ending this week, but another batch of alleged scammers deported to China...

Cambodia yesterday said it would deport 21 Taiwanese nationals arrested on fraud charges to China, ignoring attempts by Taiwanese officials to have them returned instead to Taiwan.

Cambodian authorities arrested 13 of the Taiwanese along with 14 Chinese on Monday last week.

Another eight Taiwanese suspects were detained on Saturday, Cambodia’s General Department of Immigration Director of Inspection and Procedure Major General Uk Heisela said.

“We have decided to deport them to China because they all are Chinese. The Chinese side has asked us to wait while they work out whether to send a plane or buy tickets for them,” Heisela told reporters yesterday.

He said Cambodia refused to draw a distinction between Chinese and Taiwanese, as the country adheres to a “one China” policy.

Note that the "Taiwanese = Chinese" is a position held by Cambodia. The article contains the Chinese statement:

“China requested Cambodia to send all the suspects to the mainland as most of the victims in this case are in China, and they obstructed our personnel from visiting the Taiwanese suspects,” the foreign ministry said.

This has been the position of China throughout -- the position that adheres to established international practice and law -- that the crimes were committed against Chinese in China, and thus, the criminals should be sent to there. China HAS NOT been saying loudly that the Taiwanese are really Chinese and thus Beijing has jurisdiction over them. Note that China has asked for deportation, not extradition. In the Kenya case, the Kenya government was able to deport the Taiwanese fraud suspects to China because they had entered the country illegally and thus could be returned to their last port of embarkation. Cambodia under the 1994 Immigration Law can simply deport anyone who enters the country under false pretenses, and dollars to donuts, these suspects not only did that, but also entered from Guangzhou, as the ones in Kenya did.

Next time guys, enter from Tahiti or Maldives, so you'll be deported someplace nice... and don't commit crime in China while based in a country that has become more or less a protectorate of Beijing.

J Michael Cole, who has been churning out articles at the News Lens, observed:

According to Cambodian immigration officials, 13 Taiwanese and 14 Chinese nationals were arrested for alleged Internet fraud on June 13 in a raid at their villa in Phnom Penh. Soon thereafter, Taiwanese representatives contacted their Cambodian counterparts to ensure its nationals were sent back to Taiwan. Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports that the Taiwanese officials were unable to meet with the suspects.

There is simply no reason to have these men shipped back to Taiwan, and the possibility of being shipped off to do real time in a Chinese prison might actually function as a deterrent to people entering this "profession." MOFA should expend its resources on other things.

MOFA's lack of leverage highlights the short-sightedness of the Ma Administration's China-focused foreign policy, which -- probably deliberately -- neglected SE Asian nations. Fortunately the Tsai Administration has a strong push to reverse that neglect.
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