On Tuesday 9th of July, Ambassador Liao´s opinion article "Stoppa utlämningar av taiwanesiska medborgare till Kina" was published in the newspaper Nya Wermlands-Tidningen (click here to read the editorial in Swedish). Below is the English translation of the article:

In December 2016, Spanish authorities arrested 219 Taiwanese citizens suspected of being involved in telecom frauds in which Chinese citizens were victims. On June 6 2019, Spain decided to extradite 94 suspected Taiwanese citizens to China after two earlier extraditions of 40 and 60 such suspects.

By doing this, Spain sends the wrong signals to China, especially given the great popular resistance in Hong Kong recently to a bill that permits Hong Kong citizens and even foreigners to be extradited to mainland China. The decision was also taken in close connection with the symbolically charged date June 4 – the massacre on Tiananmen Square took place precisely on June 4 thirty years ago.

Even though we take a clear stand against the alleged criminal deeds of the Taiwanese citizens as well as regret that they have taken advantage of their Taiwanese passport to travel without need of visa to another country, they are still entitled to a fair legal trial based on the due process of law. It is their human right. Sweden does not extradite suspects to countries that cannot provide guarantees that the suspects will not be exposed to torture or death penalty, which goes against Swedish legal principles.

Human rights experts at the UN have appealed to Spain to stop extraditions to China. They argue that the suspects risk being subjected to torture and being sentenced to punishments such as forced labour or even the death penalty. The experts also argue that some of the suspects may be victims of human trafficking, as several of them said that they were brought to Spain to work as tourist guides – instead they were forced to make fraud calls to China.

The extradition decision to China also violates Spain’s international commitment to not extradite people to states where there are reasons to believe they may be subjected to torture. Spain’s actions are remarkable, especially in view of the statement made by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs on January 18, 2019, expressing concern that two arrested Canadian citizens would not be treated in a fair, transparent, and impartial way in China. It is therefore clear that the Spanish authorities do not have confidence in the Chinese legal system. To extradite Taiwanese citizens to China is clearly double standard and hypocrisy.

I would also like to express my regret over Spain’s act of totally disregarding the international norms and principles as well as ignoring the rights of the citizens of the Republic of China (Taiwan). We need to speak up against Spain´s action to prevent other countries in the EU to follow Spain and extradite to China. The right thing to do would be to put the Taiwanese citizens on trial in Spain and let them serve their sentence in Spain. And deport them back to their country of origin, that is Republic of China (Taiwan), after having served their time.

Daniel T.C. Liao,
Representative of Taipei Mission in Sweden
(Taiwan´s representative office in Sweden)