Kenya clears Taiwanese citizens of telecommunications fraud charges, then deport them ... to China.

[Arkain2K]

Taipei says Kenyan officers used teargas to force the deportees out of holding cells and onto a plane

Johnny Chiang, a legislator from the Kuomintang party, displays a video clip showing Taiwanese detained at a police station in Kenya, during a press conference in Taipei on April 12, 2016​

Kenya says it stands by its decision to deport groups of Taiwanese to China — a move that has sparked outrage in Taiwan, where the deportations are regarded as tantamount to abduction.

“They came from China and we took them to China,” Kenya’s interior ministry spokesperson Mwenda Njoka said, according to Reuters.

Taiwan has been self-ruled since 1949, and regards itself as a sovereign nation. But China considers the island part of its territory. Kenyan foreign minister Amina Mohamed told Reuters “We believe in the ‘One China’ policy.”

China has billions of dollars invested in Kenya.

Kenya originally held dozens of Taiwanese and Chinese on suspicion of involvement in telecommunications fraud, for which some have been cleared. But conflicting reports have emerged on what has happened since. According to Taipei, eight Taiwanese were deported on Friday and 37 on Tuesday, including those who had been cleared of wrongdoing by the Kenyan courts. Nairobi said eight Taiwanese were deported to China on Monday and 16 on Tuesday.

During the Tuesday deportations, Reuters reported, Kenyan officers used teargas to force the Taiwanese out of holding cells and onto a plane, Taiwan’s foreign ministry added that one of the deportees also holds U.S. citizenship. The U.S. State Department said it would look into the situation.

Beijing has been spreading its dragnet around the world in recent years, in pursuit of ethnic Chinese on its radar regardless of their nationality. Gui Minhai, a Chinese-born Swedish citizen who published books critical of Chinese leaders, was believed abducted by communist agents from his Thai apartment in 2015. His colleague Paul Lee, also called Lee Bo and a British citizen, was widely believed to have been kidnapped in Hong Kong last December, although he has since maintained, apparently under coercion, that he gave himself up freely to mainland Chinese authorities.

http://time.com/4291726/kenya-taiwan-china-deport-detention/

 

[Kuggk]

It's amazing how China is just buying Africa...

 

[Rex Kwon Do]

'Kenyan foreign minister Amina Mohamed told Reuters “We believe in the ‘One China’ policy.”'

Wow. What a cunt.

 

[Space]

Big story here, but what do you expect from China? They bribe these African leaders and have been making big in-roads there.

 

[PrinceOfPain]

This stupid continent and it's relationship with China...
No ability to learn from the past.

 

[ironwolf]

It's amazing how China is just buying Africa...

....and Australia.

 

[KILL KILL]

'Kenyan foreign minister Amina Mohamed told Reuters “We believe in the ‘One China’ policy.”'

Wow. What a cunt.

That's literally the most "I don't give a fuck" response I've heard in a long long time.

 

[YoungBoyd]

Kenyan foreign minister Amina Mohamed told Reuters “We believe in the ‘One China’ policy.”

I haven't laughed as much as this for a while.

 

[Rod1]

This stupid continent and it's relationship with China...
No ability to learn from the past.

They are learning from the past, they realized they need colonial powers to prop your government up. Soviet Union is gone and thus the interest of the US to prop up anti-communist regimes, so these leaders live with a damocles sword on their weak regimes.

China gives them legitimacy and support to secure their positions as local warlords.

 

[PrinceOfPain]

They are learning from the past, they realized they need colonial powers to prop your government up. Soviet Union is gone and thus the interest of the US to prop up anti-communist regimes, so these leaders live with a damocles sword on their weak regimes.

China gives them legitimacy and support to secure their positions as local warlords.

Are you implying America was propping up African countries during the Cold War?

And they're not learning from the past, they're repeating it, and this time South Africa has hopped on the same stupid ride.

 

[Strychnine]

It's amazing how China is just buying Africa...

I was in Africa back in '94 and I saw signs all over that read in English and Chinese.. "This power plant/substation brought to you by XXXXXX Manufacturing, so and so China."

Back in 1994!

 

[Rod1]

Are you implying America was propping up African countries during the Cold War?

And they're not learning from the past, they're repeating it, and this time South Africa has hopped on the same stupid ride.

No, im merely stating that USSR was propping a lot of governments and the US was propping their own, so it was a good life for the African warlord who felt his position of power had international backing.

Not so much nowadays where they need to appease the population or they risk to be overthrown.

 

[Arkain2K]

I was in Africa back in '94 and I saw signs all over that read in English and Chinese.. "This power plant/substation brought to you by XXXXXX Manufacturing, so and so China."

Back in 1994!

He said "buying" when he should have said "bought".

Any Asian countries unfortunate enough to share their borders with China knows about their colonial long con. Lucky for Africans, there's a great big ocean in between so China wouldn't be able to "provide protection" for any territory and then adds to China's territorial map, besides the land and natural resources they bought for cheap from the African dictatorships they're propping up, that is.

 

[Arkain2K]

China to Prosecute Taiwanese in Fraud Case Despite Acquittals in Kenya

Taiwanese citizens accused of telecommunications fraud arrived in Beijing in handcuffs on Wednesday after being forced onto a plane by Kenyan police officers.​

The Chinese government announced on Wednesday that a group of Taiwanese citizens who were deported to China from Kenya would be prosecuted on charges of telecommunications fraud despite having been acquitted of the same charges by a Kenyan court this month.

The move escalated a diplomatic battle that has outraged Taiwan, which sees the deportation of its citizens to China as an extrajudicial abduction. The case has also raised international legal questions and involved Kenya in the geopolitical maneuvering between China and Taiwan.

The Taiwanese citizens arrived in Beijing on Wednesday, hooded and handcuffed, after being forced onto a plane by Kenyan police officers. Taiwanese legislators accused the Kenyan government of violating international law and its own laws to placate China. They noted that the citizens had been cleared of charges of involvement in a large telecommunications fraud ring based in Kenya.

The deportations underscored the limited leverage of Taiwan’s government. Even though China and Kenya do not have an extradition treaty, Kenya has no diplomatic relations with Taiwan, a self-governing island that China considers part of its territory.

As outrage mounted in Taiwan over what officials called an “uncivilized act of extrajudicial abduction,” China’s Ministry of Public Security released a statement Wednesday saying that 32 Chinese citizens and 45 Taiwanese, including 10 now in China, “had been falsely presenting themselves as law enforcement officers to extort money from people on the Chinese mainland through telephone calls,” according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.


http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/14/w...n-fraud-case-despite-acquittals-in-kenya.html

 

[Arkain2K]

Can China get away with abducting people overseas?
By J. Michael Cole
Updated 4:11 AM ET, Thu April 14, 2016​

​

The ongoing crisis over the deportation by Kenyan authorities of 45 Taiwanese nationals to China has sparked consternation in Taipei and accusations of international kidnapping worldwide.

Besides the fact that the individuals were cleared of all crimes by a Kenyan court, their extradition to China, ostensibly due to pressure from Chinese officials, raises essential questions about the future implications of the "one China" policy in a time of greater Chinese assertiveness.

China's extraterritorial reach worldwide is also cause for apprehension among Taiwanese, Uyghur, Tibetan and Hong Kong activists who now live and travel under the shadow of possible capture and extradition to China for any "crimes" as defined by Beijing's intentionally vague National Security Law.

Coming in the wake of China's alleged kidnapping of five Hong Kong booksellers, this outrage suggests that nobody is safe anymore and that Beijing will not hesitate to break agreements or international conventions to further its aims. In fact, even being a foreign national, as two of the booksellers were (and one of the Taiwanese workers reportedly is), no longer confers the kind of protections that are assumed in such situations.

Although such action risks being counterproductive in terms of winning the hearts and minds of the Taiwanese, this is possibly a case where ideology is driving policy in China, perhaps the result of domestic developments that are forcing President Xi Jinping's government to adopt a harder line on Taiwan and other "peripheries."

Given its economic sway over a number of countries worldwide, and the apparent reluctance of the international community to push back whenever it breaks international law, it seems unlikely Beijing will run out of willing partners to enforce its rigid definition of "one China" anytime soon.

Fatal blow for cross-strait relations?

The alleged abduction of the Taiwanese workers casts serious doubt on Beijing's willingness to maintain a constructive relationship with Taiwan a little more than a month before a new administration is sworn in in Taipei.

In Taiwan, the reaction to what, for all intents and purposes, amounts to the kidnapping of Taiwanese nationals, has had a rallying impact similar to that seen when Chou Tzu-yu, a 16-year-old Taiwanese K-Pop singer, was forced to make an ISIS-style video apologizing for displaying the Republic of China's flag in a promotional clip.

Besides the consternation that has pervaded Taiwanese society upon seeing their compatriots nabbed by Kenyan police and shoved, black hoods on their heads, onto a China Southern airplane, politicians from all sides are now calling into question the eight years of rapprochement under President Ma Ying-jeou, who steps down on May 20.

The "status quo" that has served as the foundation of cross-straits ties, as well as the different interpretations of "one China" that have provided the necessary flexibility for the two sides to co-exist, now seem under assault by Beijing.

In fact, many of the key accomplishments of the "Beijing-friendly" Ma are now regarded in an entirely new light; rather than instruments of normalization and reciprocity, it is now difficult not to regard those successes cynically, as mere tools for Beijing to lock Taiwan ever more tightly into its embrace.
The Mainland Affairs Council, the agency in charge of communicating with Beijing, has been denied access to the 45 Taiwanese and authorities in Taiwan are being kept largely in the dark.

Moreover, the handling of the matter demonstrates that the joint crime-fighting agreement signed between the two sides in 2009 -- the very kind of agreement that would come into play in such a situation -- is effectively a dead instrument which Beijing can ignore as it sees fit. The same conceivably applies to the twenty or so other agreements signed between the two sides since 2008.

Beijing's behavior will only succeed in alienating ordinary Taiwanese, among whom support for unification is at an all-time, single-digit low. For President-elect Tsai Ing-wen, this incident creates a challenge, as she will have to continue negotiating with a regime that has no compunction in breaking the rules and which is keen to extend the reach of its laws to include Taiwanese citizens, wherever they are.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/13/opinions/j-michael-cole-op-ed-taiwan-kenya/index.html

 

[Alpha Omega Man]

....and Australia.

and CANada...

 

[panamaican]

As others have said, China has been spending in Africa for quite a while. And it's a good thing for both parties. Like Rod noted, many African nations get a powerful economic and military partner. China gets preferential access to resources.

No one in the West should have a problem with this since they've largely left Africa to figure out how to build it's infrastructure on it's own. That's not a knock on the humanitarian aid but if an African nation's government is trying to build better roads and get more electricity to it's populace they're going to need real expertise and infrastructure investment. Something China has been willing to provide.

 

[ShinkanPo]

'Kenyan foreign minister Amina Mohamed told Reuters “We believe in the ‘One China’ policy.”'

Wow. What a cunt.

With a name like Amiba Mohammad what can we expect?

Moslim gonna Moslim wow.


#Notallmoslim
#ReligionofPeace

 

[BJ@LW&WW]

'Kenyan foreign minister Amina Mohamed told Reuters “We believe in the ‘One China’ policy.”'

Wow. What a cunt.

well there are a number of countries that dont legally recognize taiwan as sovereign

 

[Alpha Omega Man]

As others have said, China has been spending in Africa for quite a while. And it's a good thing for both parties. Like Rod noted, many African nations get a powerful economic and military partner. China gets preferential access to resources.

No one in the West should have a problem with this since they've largely left Africa to figure out how to build it's infrastructure on it's own. That's not a knock on the humanitarian aid but if an African nation's government is trying to build better roads and get more electricity to it's populace they're going to need real expertise and infrastructure investment. Something China has been willing to provide.

really...I have always thought you were an insightful poster...money has been given and spent hand over fist to many African nations only for it to be pissed away...hospitals are built (and have cost overruns that make the American military look like cheapskates) and they are derelict within a few years...the corruption in most African countries is perfect for their new friends from China...and infrastructure development in China is a beacon of success...smh...