Beijing will return to Taiwan a man accused of murder who fled to the mainland last month, authorities said on Tuesday (December 7th), a rare act of cooperation between the two sides in the midst of rising tensions.
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The suspect, identified by his last name only Huang, fled to Xiamen in southeast China after allegedly shooting and killing a man in New Taipei .
Xiamen police decided to send him home after he admitted to the crime, according to the Taiwanese Affairs Bureau of China.
No date has been specified.
The move will strengthen efforts to fight crime and "
maintain order
" in relations between the two sides, added the Bureau of Taiwan Affairs.
According to Taiwanese media, Mr. Huang was stranded in a hotel after his escape to the mainland, which imposed a 14-day quarantine on arrival.
"Criminals are the enemies of the whole world"
China considers the island of 23 million inhabitants as one of its provinces destined to return to its fold, if necessary by force. Since the communist seizure of power in Beijing in 1949 and the flight of the nationalist government to Taiwan, the mainland and Taiwan have been governed separately. While Taiwanese criminals used to flee to China to escape prosecution in Taiwan, Taipei and Beijing signed an agreement in 2009 to fight crime, providing for a reciprocal return of wanted suspects.
Since the election in 2016 to the Taiwanese presidency of Tsai Ing-wen, from a party traditionally hostile to Beijing, its implementation has been hampered by rising tensions between the two parties.
“
Criminals are the enemies of the whole world.
We hope that the authorities on both sides can continue to fight crime,
”the Taiwanese Bureau of Continental Affairs, the body responsible for relations with Beijing, said in a statement.
According to the organization, China returned four Taiwanese suspects to the island last year.
No figures were available on the number of Chinese citizens returned to the mainland from Taiwan.
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Mr. Huang's deportation to Taiwan contrasts with the blocking in another high-profile case, that of the murder of a Hong Kong woman by her also Hong Kong boyfriend during a stay in Taiwan in 2018. Chan Tong-kai admitted to the murder but remains at large in Hong Kong due to an impasse for which Hong Kong and Taiwan mutually reject each other.