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Comment by ETHisso2017 | Hacker News Reader

ETHisso2017

> The latest proposal has come after a 19-year-old Hong Kong man allegedly murdered his 20-year-old pregnant girlfriend while they were holidaying in Taiwan together in February last year. The man fled Taiwan and returned to Hong Kong last year.

> Taiwanese officials have sought help from Hong Kong authorities to extradite the man, but Hong Kong officials say they cannot comply because of the lack of an extradition agreement with Taiwan.

> But the Taiwanese government has said it will not seek to extradite the murder suspect under the proposed changes, and has urged Hong Kong to handle the case separately.

I thought the extradition bill was to / from China? What does Taiwan have to do with this?

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Because in PRC's mind, Taiwan is a part of the PRC

[Off topic] For those who are confused, China mainland is also a part of the ROC (Republic of China, the governing authority of Taiwan) according to the constitution. Basically, the civil war in China has never ended officially. Mainlanders want unification, Taiwanese (esp. the young generation) want the opposite. Still, constitutions are constitutions, albeit old...

This article has a nice infographic: https://multimedia.scmp.com/infographics/news/hong-kong/arti...

Basically Hong Kong right now, has a whole bunch of extradition treaties with 20 countries[1], just not with both China governments, due to the existing law. The bill fixes this.

Also, the 19 year old HK man admitted to the crime [2], however due to the the crime being committed outside HK, he can't be tried for manslaughter in HK; the HK authorities can only charge him with "money laundering" of his girlfriend's money and property (again [2]). He is currently serving the sentence for money laundering, and he's going to be released in October. However if this bill is passed he can be extradited and tried for murder in Taiwan.

[1] With Australia, Britain, Canada, the Czech Republic, France, Finland, Germany, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, Portugal, South Korea, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka and the United States

[2] https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/30...

> if this bill is passed he can be extradited and tried for murder in Taiwan

Except Taiwan isn’t China. If Taiwan and Hong Kong want an extradition treaty, they can sign one.

This bill is to enable the lawful extradition of dissenters. (Beijing tried doing it surreptitiously [1]; that backfired.)

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/08/hong-kong-book...

> Except Taiwan isn’t China

In practice it isn't, but on paper it is, both according to the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China. (One-China Policy)

> However if this bill is passed he can be extradited and tried for murder in Taiwan.

Taiwan clearly stated that they wouldn't extradite the man under this bill. This is the exact lie the government has been telling to mislead people who don't follow the news.

It's not a lie, Taiwan was clearly supporting extraditing him in Feb[1], though there seems to be some concern now[2]

[1] http://www.ejinsight.com/20190213-govt-proposes-revising-ext...

"Taiwanese authorities had asked their counterparts in Hong Kong multiple times to extradite Chan for a court trial, but that has not happened due to restrictions from Hong Kong law."

http://focustaiwan.tw/news/asoc/201902130023.aspx

"Tsai Chiu-ming (蔡秋明), head of the Department of International and Cross-Strait Legal Affairs under the Ministry of Justice, said Taiwan welcomes closer cooperation with other jurisdictions to combat cross-border crime, and he is glad to see Hong Kong's planned legislation."

[2] "Taipei will not agree to transfer of Hong Kong murder suspect if Taiwanese citizens risk being sent to mainland China"

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3009506...

They wanted the suspect on trial for sure, but not under this law, as stated in your third source. Even Carrie Lam herself admitted this in the press meeting just now.

Its a general extradition bill I suppose

Or maybe the Hong Kong government can't distinguish between both China's? Like a bill that discusses extradition with mainland China's PRC by default is referring Taiwan China's ROC. That wouldn't surprise me since all of greater china is basically a twilight zone mockery to the nation state concept.

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