Taiwan News
Date 2016-04-12
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – China should release all Taiwanese who had been deported from Kenya, President-elect Tsai Ing-wen said Tuesday amid an escalating crisis over citizens accused of involvement in telephone scams.

An estimated 45 Taiwanese nationals had been found not guilty by a court in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, but instead of expelling them to Taiwan, the authorities in the African country were planning to put all of them on flights to China. Eight were reportedly already being held in Beijing.

The move caused consternation in Taiwan, where politicians from all sides condemned it as interference in the country’s sovereignty.

Government circles said they would be sending an envoy to China to lodge a protest and to discuss the release of the Taiwanese citizens.