How the Tsai Gov’t Craftily Utilizes the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance

 How the Tsai Gov’t Craftily Utilizes the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

June 17, 2019

 Translation of an Excerpt

After many days of protests and confrontations, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carry Lam announced that she suspended the legislative action on the amendment bill to the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance, one of the grounds being cited was that Taiwan had indicated that it would refuse to accept the transfer of fugitives in accordance with the amendment. However, the people of Hong Kong are still extremely dissatisfied; yesterday, over one million people continued to protest in the streets, demanding that the Hong Kong government withdraw the bill. Carrie Lam finally extended apologies to the people of Hong Kong. In order to underscore her support for Hong Kong’s democracy, President Tsai declared that "Taiwan is not willing to be an accomplice of a bad law." The Presidential Office criticized Carrie Lam for "embroiing" Taiwan, which was an irresponsible act. In fact, the Tsai government may not have been "an accomplice" of a bad law, but it, however, indirectly utilized the situation to benefit itself.

The main origin of the amendment bill to the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance is the following: in February last year, Hong Kong male Chan Tung-kai killed his girlfriend Poon Hiu-wing in Taiwan. After Chan Tung-kai fled back to Hong Kong, the case came to the public eye. As Hong Kong and Taiwan do not have an extradition agreement, the Hong Kong side did not agree to send Chan Tung-kai to Taiwan for trial. In addition, Hong Kong's judiciary follows the principle of "jus solis", thus, it does not have jurisdiction over this homicide case; therefore, it could only indict and convict Chan Tung-kai on charges of money laundering and other minor offences.

A suspect already known for having committed homicide surprisingly could not be tried as such, causing serious harm to the principle of equal justice before the law. After it concluded its investigations last year, the Shihlin District Prosecutor's Office asked the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) under the Cabinet many times to write an official letter to the Hong Kong government requesting legal assistance in a judicial matter. In the official letter, the MAC especially emphasized that it would not accept handling the case under the "one China principle." The Hong Kong side, however, indicated that it would "handle the matter within the framework of Hong Kong law.” Up to the middle of February this year, the Hong Kong government announced its plan to revise the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance, planning to include Taiwan in the scope of mutual legal assistance in judicial matters. At that time, our Ministry of Justice immediately indicated that "it would be happy to see its fruition" and affirming that this was "progressive legislation."

Apropos to the affirmative stance of the Ministry of Justice on the amendment bill, the MAC at the time did not make any statement. It was not until late February that the MAC issued a statement, saying that if the Ordinance was enacted based on the "one-China principle", then Taiwan would absolutely not accept it. In other words, the focus of the MAC’s concern is still on whether it involves "one China", and not equal justice before the law or other human rights considerations.

On the other hand, seeing that the matter snowballed in Hong Kong, the Tsai government decided to consider "the anti-repatriation to the Mainland" demonstration as its own political capital, not only upping the ante by opposing it in a high-profile, but also proclaimed that if the Hong Kong Legislative Council should pass the amendment bill, it would not rule out listing Hong Kong as "an area of warning advisory for tourism." President Tsai and the MAC both indicated that even if the Hong Kong government passes the amendment bill to the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance, Taiwan would not accept Chan Tung-kai to be transfered to Taiwan in accordance with the revised ordinance

The Tsai government is nevertheless indirectly, through crafty manipulations, utilizing this ordinance to incite a wave of popular grievances, helping Tsai Ing-wen to achieve a big victory in the DPP primary. Pitiful are the family members of Poon Hiu-wing, the victim; her parents had come to Taiwan several times to request the extradition of Chan Tung-kai. However, this humble request would not be materialized as it was submerged in the triangular political wrestling among Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Mainland.

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