Taiwan Rep in Kenya all but confirms fate of deportees decided early on...

Cats in cages...

The Taiwan rep to Kenya had a piece in one of the Kenya papers today in which he accused Kenya of not being democratic yada yada yada about the deportations of alleged scammers to China. It was mostly just a pile of selective, judgmental emoting. But among its claims was this observation:

It seems plausible that Kenya decided long ago what the outcome of this deportation case would be and that in trying to sustain good relations with China, it has traded the order of law for assistance from China. Kenya has sacrificed these five individuals’ rights for political expediency and advantageous gain from Beijing.

As I wrote in The Diplomat earlier this year:

China became involved immediately. In December 2014, a police team arrived from China to help investigate the case, and in January 2015, the Chinese government formally requested that Kenya send the suspects to China. China wanted to try the suspects on fraud charges, while the Kenya government tried them only on telecoms equipment and business violations. This withholding of the fraud charges suggests that the two governments agreed on how to handle the case over a year before Tsai Ing-wen was elected. It is thus highly unlikely that the Chinese government was planning to signal the incoming DPP administration on cross-strait sovereignty issues.

Yup. It was all decided long before Tsai came to power...
_______________________
[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums!