Forbes
Date: APR 13, 2016
Ralph Jennings , CONTRIBUTOR

Taiwan isn’t just mad this week at its China, an old political rival that had been

Andrew Hsia, Minister of Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, speaks to the press April 13, 2016. Taiwan said Kenyan police broke down a jail wall and used tear gas to force a group of Taiwanese to board a plane for China. (SAM YEH/AFP/Getty Images)

spared a lot of wrath over the past eight years in the interest of building trust. It’s using diplomatic and legal tools to push Beijing for the release of 45 Taiwanese citizens who were deported from Kenya this month – to China rather than home, hence the outrage. It rang up a hotline Tuesday to accuse China of an international crime, abduction, and has prepared to send a delegation. It also intends to sue three government agencies in Kenya, which worked with China to get the
Taiwanese out after they were suspected of telephone fraud. China, Taiwan says, should have consulted it according to a 2011 agreement to team up on crime-busting issues.

China happens to claim sovereignty over Taiwan, which has been self-ruled since the 1960s. And China happens to be a globally sought-after economy of more than $10 trillion, a reason it has 170 diplomatic allies compared to Taiwan’s 22. China calls shots whenever facing Taiwan over an international issue and the Kenya case was no different. Beijing also doesn’t like Taiwan’s president-elect, so it feels less compelled to act nice as it has since 2008 under a more sympathetic president.     [FULL  STORY]