Cambodia announced on Tuesday that it arrested several “Chinese criminals” in late March, including individuals from Taiwan, and handed them days later to the Chinese authorities, in deportations that annoyed Taipei.
The Taiwan Foreign Ministry reported on Monday that Cambodia sent an unknown number of Taiwanese citizens to China after being arrested working at telecommunications fraud centers.
In a statement, a spokesman for Cambodia’s Foreign Ministry stated that the decision was according to Cambodian law and adhered to the policy of “one China” by Beijing, who states that there is only one China and that Taiwan is part of it.
Chinese president Xi Jinping is expected to visit Cambodia this week for a trip to Southeast Asia, which began in Vietnam on Monday and will also include Malaysia.
“Individuals delivered to Chinese authorities are criminals, not ordinary people, and their delivery to the Government of the Popular Republic of China does not differ from the practice of some other countries that adhere to the policy of ‘one China’,” he added.
The ministry did not say how many people were deported.
China’s Foreign Ministry said it had no information about the deportations.
Taipei states that Cambodia arrested 180 Taiwanese suspected of working at fraud centers and that on Sunday (13) and on Monday dawn (14), nearly 190 people were deported to China at the request of the Chinese government.
Cambodia is one of the closest allies in China in Southeast Asia, and Taiwan does not have an embassy in the country, unlike many other parts of the region.
Hsiao Kuang-Wei, spokesman for the Taiwan Foreign Ministry, told reporters in Taipei on Tuesday that the government was still trying to find out exactly how many Taiwanese were deported.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs again appeals to our citizens so that they do not risk and go abroad to get involved in illegal activities,” he added.
Taiwan had previously complained about countries such as Cambodia, Kenya and Spain deporting their citizens to China after being arrested on suspicion of involvement in telecommunications fraud schemes.
China claims Taiwan, democratically governed as its own territory.
Taiwan vehemently opposes the claims of sovereignty of China and states that only the island people can decide their future.
This content was originally published in Cambodia says he deported Taiwanese suspicious fraud to China on CNN Brazil.
Source: CNN Brasil
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