Taipei Times
Date: Apr 24, 2016
By: Reuters, TAIPEI and BEIJING

China is battling an explosion of telecoms fraud that has cost billions of dollars in financial losses and driven some people to suicide, according to authorities in Beijing, who say criminal gangs based in Taiwan are behind many of the scams.
Chinese state media outlets have blamed weak punishments in Taiwan and reported that Chinese-speaking fraudsters recruited in Taiwan are increasingly setting up operations in East Africa or Southeast Asia.

Despite political tensions, the two sides have in recent years cooperated on investigating such scams, but Taiwan has said Chinese authorities sometimes do not provide enough evidence for them to do anything.

“We are a democratic, rule of law country,” the Criminal Investigation Bureau’s 7th Investigation Corps Captain Chang Wen-yuan (張文源) said. “In this respect, we emphasize the proof or lack of evidence. You can’t just say, ‘today media reports the person committed a crime,’ just like that.”

Chang was speaking after China slammed Taiwan for freeing 20 suspects deported to Taiwan from Malaysia in an alleged telecoms fraud case.     [FULL  STORY]