Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: rheins/WikiCommons/CC BY 3.0
A RECENT REPATRIATION incident illustrates deteriorating cross-strait ties, with Chinese authorities politicizing prisoner repatriation.
The incident in question involved the repatriation of ten Taiwanese prisoners who had previously been serving time in China for fraud. The ten prisoners were involved in fraud in Cambodia and were arrested by the Chinese government. The ten prisoners were all men, aged between 22 and 30. Eight were wanted in Taiwan, with four sent to prison after arriving in Taiwan, while the other four were released.
After serving time in China, the ten individuals were sent to Kinmen by ferry. However, according to the Mainland Affairs Council, the Chinese government did not give Kinmen law enforcement any prior notice. This breaks from precedent in which Chinese authorities would agree upon a set time and means of repatriation for prisoners.
Kinmen law enforcement only dispatched police and immigration officials to the pier after the potential issue was flagged by the ferry company, seeing as the ten men were escorted to the ferry by police and had buzz cuts. Chinese police did not board the vessel but only left the pier after the ferry had departed.
The ten men were found without identity documents on arrival. Though the ten men claimed not to know each other and to have been tricked into engaging in fraud, it is thought that the ten belonged ot the same group. Again, eight were wanted in Taiwan, but all ten individuals were reportedly sent to Taiwan on board the ferry without any prior notification.
China may wish to send a message to Taiwan, then. It was already a matter of controversy in past years when Taiwanese fraud suspects were sent to China rather than Taiwan, with concerns about the lack of accountability in the Chinese judicial process, even if many of the victims of such fraud efforts were Chinese. When this made the news, it was usually when Western countries such as Spain sent Taiwanese fraud suspects to China.
Despite the poor state of cross-strait relations, cooperation between Taiwanese and Chinese law enforcement sometimes still occurs. In August 2024, the Taiwanese Coast Guard participated in a rescue operation for a Chinese fisherman who fell overboard on October 10th. This began after the Taiwanese Coast Guard was notified of the missing fishermen by the Chinese Coast Guard. The search continued from October 10th to October 13th, with the Taiwanese Coast Guard continuing to search even after the Chinese Coast Guard called off its own search.
Even so, China has generally tried to depict Taiwan as actively targeting China. In February 2024, two Chinese fishermen were killed after the boat they were on was found to be intruding in Kinmen territorial waters. While seeking to escape from the Taiwanese Coast Guard, their vessel crashed into a Taiwanese Coast Guard vessel. When the two men were recovered, they were found to be without vital signs.
China used the incident as a pretext to increase maritime activity around Kinmen, including conducting searches of Taiwanese ferries. Even so, this did not prevent the aforementioned rescue operation, which took place after the incident.
Outlying islands have been a specific target of Chinese United Front efforts. Specifically, outlying islands of Taiwan were highly dependent on Chinese tourism in the past, and retain substantial economic links to China. China has sought to use that as a foothold to show the rest of Taiwan the economic benefits that Taiwan could have if it drew closer to China.
To that extent, outlying islands of Taiwan as Kinmen and Matsu historically slant KMT, in part because of the desire for further engagement with China by the local electorate. At the same time, it can also be seen that China sometimes takes a coercive approach to outlying islands, as observed with the recent repatriation incident.