Protesters Demand Taiwan Take In Chan Tong-kai

Four members of a pro-Beijing group staged a protest outside the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Admiralty on Friday, demanding that Taiwan immediately issue a visa for murder suspect Chan Tong-kai.

The Taiwanese authorities are reported to have rejected a visa application by Chan, who says he is willing to fly back to the island to face justice over the death of his Hong Kong girlfriend there in 2018.

Taipei said recently that it can't just allow the suspect to wander in as he pleases, and the Hong Kong authorities must work with them on the matter.

But the group, Youth Vision, said Taipei has full responsibility for facilitating Chan's surrender, being as Hong Kong has no authority to send him to Taiwan, and his rights are fully protected under the Basic Law.

"Chan Tong-kai did not violate the law in Hong Kong, and there isn't any extradition arrangement between the two places, therefore our government has no right to take control of Chan's freedom," said the group's spokesman, Victor Chan.

The four demonstrators, who chanted "Tsai Ing-wen looks down on Hongkongers", also called on Taipei to make public the situation regarding five SAR residents who are believed to have been detained by Taiwan in July as they made their way to the island by boat.

The protesters questioned why pro-democracy activists are so worried about the well-being of 12 Hongkongers detained in Shenzhen after being picked up by the Guangdong coast guard in August, and not the five thought to be in Taiwan.

"Regarding the 12 people in Shenzhen ... the pan-democrats are raising so much concern, which I agree with. But why are they not raising the same concern about the five people in Taiwan?" asked Jonathan Chow, another member of the group.

Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council has refused to confirm or deny claims of the detentions there. But the island's Central News Agency quoted a source last month as confirming that the five had been detained, at least at one point.

Representatives from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, which serves as Taiwan's defacto consulate in Hong Kong, collected a petition from the demonstrators regarding their demands.