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 leave on Wednesday.
Xinhua showed some of them arriving in Beijing with black hoods over their heads, escorted by police.
Taiwanese had been heavily involved in telecoms fraud in China and had caused huge losses, with some victims killing themselves, the ministry said.
Taiwanese criminals:
Have been falsely presenting themselves as law enforcement officers to extort money from people on the Chinese mainland through telephone callsMinistry of Public Security, China
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 said.
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.An Fengshan, Spokesman, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office
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