Taiwan Extradition Now Very Tricky: Lau Siu-kai

A top Beijing adviser said on Friday that if Hong Kong regards Taiwan as being part of China it will be very difficult for the two sides to continue negotiations over the extradition of a man wanted for the murder of his girlfriend on the island.

The comment from Lau Siu-kai, who is the vice-president of Beijing's top think tank on Hong Kong, follows the SAR government's move to change its fugitives law bill so that only extradition requests from a country's top authorities would be accepted.

Security Secretary John Lee had specifically noted that requests would not be entertained if they came from provincial authorities. Beijing, however, considers Taiwan to be a province of China.

Lau said there would be "a lot of troublesome political problems" if the SAR government is forced to state which authority in Taiwan it would recognise for a request to extradite murder suspect Chan Tong-kai.

The think tank chief said treating Taiwan as part of China would pose a real problem, but equally no extradition deal could be drawn up if it suggests that Taiwan is an independent jurisdiction.

Asked whether this means the Taiwan murder case cannot be resolved even once the extradition law amendments are passed, Lau said the law change is not only aimed at tackling this one fugitive case, but to plug legal loopholes and counter national security threats.

Chan is accused of murdering his girlfriend in Taiwan early last year and Taipei says it has repeatedly asked the SAR authorities for help with bringing him to justice. Hong Kong officials say that until the law is changed, their hands are tied.

The Carrie Lam administration had made Chan's case a central part of its push for the new extradition laws. On Friday, however, Security Secretary John Lee spoke of several cases where extraditions have not been possible because of the city's current restrictions on surrendering people to "other parts of the People's Republic".