Cambodia deports 39 to China, including 25 Taiwanese

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Cambodia on Friday deported 39 suspected criminals to mainland China, including 25 Taiwanese whom Beijing insists it has jurisdiction over despite protests from Taipei.

The chief of the Interior Ministry’s Immigration Investigation Bureau, Gen. Ouk Haiseila, said the 25 Taiwanese and 14 Chinese were sent on a special plane dispatched by the Chinese government.

He said they were sent to China because they had committed crimes against Chinese citizens. They are accused of defrauding victims in China using phone calls made over the internet, which complicated tracing them. He earlier said earlier this week they would be sent to China because Cambodia regards Taiwan to be part of China.

Although its constitution formally decrees that it and the mainland are part of a single Chinese nation, Taiwan functions like an independent country and does not acknowledge Beijing’s claim of authority over it.

Originally Cambodia planned to deport 35 people, but four more were arrested in raids this past week, Haiseila said.

Asked about Cambodia’s action at a regular briefing Friday in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying noted that “the Cambodian government said before that it will tackle the problem based on the ‘one-China’ policy.”

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