Taipei said this week that Beijing had "illegally" pressured authorities in Nairobi to deport eight of its citizens to the mainland after they had been cleared of fraud charges in Kenya, adding that a total of 37 other Taiwanese were also facing return.
The head of China's Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) Zhang Zhijun informed Taipei about "a group of Taiwanese residents who are criminal suspects thought to have carried out electronic fraud and who have been detained by our public security agency", the official Xinhua news agency reported late yesterday.
It did not specify the number or identity of those held, or make specific reference to Kenya or to any deportation.
China considers Taiwan a province of its own, which it will one day unify by force if necessary, even though the territory has ruled itself since 1949 following a civil war split.
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Relations between the two have often been tense. Political and trade ties grew in the last decade under the leadership of the China-friendly Kuomintang (KMT), but the landslide election victory of independence-leaning Tsai Ying-wen in January's presidential poll raised fears that Beijing will take a more assertive stance.
The meeting produced little of substance beyond the announcement of a telephone hotline between Beijing and Taipei. Xinhua said the hotline had been used to discuss the detained fraud suspects.
Taiwan said today that it had filed a suit against several top officials in Kenya for ignoring the court decision that cleared some of the suspects in the cyber scam case.