China Kidnaps 37 Taiwanese From Kenya, Including One US Citizen

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Today’s post is from Eric D. Mertz. Thank you Eric!

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If you have spent any amount of time on this blog, you are aware of my opinion of the Chinese Communist Party and the government of the People’s Republic of China. As such, when a story about the latest misdeeds by the (plague gods) of the (equal distributors of misery) pops up on my twitter feed, I tend to take notice. And this story caught my attention particularly.

And yes, you read that last tweet correctly. One of those kidnapped was a US Citizen.

Make no mistake, this was a kidnapping. While Kenya may recognize the People’s Republic of China as the only Chinese government per the One China Policy, these individuals are citizens of the Republic of China (Taiwan).

For those of you who are not familiar with the background here, let me give you a brief history lesson and background brief.

When the Qng Dynasty collapsed in 1911, China entered the warlord period. In the pattern of historical transitions from one dynasty to the next, each warlord sought to secure a physical base of power from which they might enter into a darwinistic struggle with their neighbors to determine which of them had inherited the Mandate of Heaven from the Qing Dynasty. Based out of Sichuan, Shanxi, Qinghai, Ningxia, Guangdong, Guanxi, Gansu, Yunnan, and Xinjiang, it looked to most outsiders that China would be embroiled in a dynastic rebellion and civil war for the next decade or so. A situation which was exacerbated by the military reforms of the Qing Dynasty which had set up the military as a collection of regional militias with units composed of individuals from the same province or even prefecture. All of them under the leadership of a local who had either bought a commission or earned their commission through the imperial examination system.

Seeking to end the constant infighting and civil wars, with the hopes of transitioning to a Western style republic, Sun Yat-Sen of the Kuomintang (KMT) sought support from foreign powers. Again and again he was turned down until the Soviet Union decided to support his Nationalists in 1921. A move which also resulted in Soviet support for the Chinese Communist Party of Mao. Together, the KMT joined with the CCP and the Comintern to unify China under the leadership of the First United Front. At the time, the KMT had part membership of close to 50,000 people in comparison to the CCP’s 1,500 at the time of the creation of the First United Front.

The front would last a grand total of four years.

In 1927, the CCP and the left-wing of the KMT left the Nationalist capital of Guangzhou and decamped to Wuhan – which they declared to be the new seat of the government. Unlike Guangzhou – a coastal port and industrial city where the standard of living was steadily increasing – Wuhan was a hotbed of Communist activity and sympathy. With Sun Yat-Sen dead for two years, control over the Pro-Western and Nationalist branch of the KMT had fallen to Chiang Kai-Shek. Before this point, Chiang had been the commander of the National Republican Army and had been instrumental in the destruction of the Warlords and the consolidation of power in China under the Nationalist Government.

Having seen the effects of Communism first hand during his time in Moscow, he looked on the CCP as a threat to the people and stability of his country. As such, he ordered General Bai Chongxi to purge the CCP from their ranks. On April 12, hundreds of CCP members in Shanghai were killed.

In Wuhan, the left-wing of the KMT was growing more and more hostile to the strident communists of the CCP. This led to Wuhan expelling the CCP, only to then be conquered by Chiang Kai-Shek’s government. With the reunification of the Nationalist controlled areas, Chiang Kai-Shek was now in control of the majority of the Eastern part of China and was recognized as the sole legitimate government of China by foreign nations. To celebrate, Chiang announced they would pursue a policy of:
*Military unification and standardization
*Political tutelage and education
*Constitutional Democracy in the model of Western powers

However, the CCP did not take this lying down.

Expelled from all positions of power and with their part banned, members of the party retreated to the countryside and fomented a peasant rebellion. Forming the People’s Liberation Army, the CCP began their insurgency with a strike on Nanchang in Jiangxi. After the NRA retook Nanchang, the surviving CCP forces retreated to the countryside and recruited personnel to attack Changsha, Shantou, and Guangzhou. This fighting would continue until Japan’s invasion and the creation of the Second United Front in 1937. An alliance which Chiang had to be forced into at gunpoint by his own military commanders who viewed the Japanese as a greater threat than the CCP.

The alliance was one which existed in name only. The KMT marched to war in a conventional fight against the Japanese and were repeatedly slaughtered and thrown back. In contrast, the CCP used their ten years of experience in a guerilla war to carry out hit and run attacks against the Japanese. All the while, the two forces were fighting one another for control over “Free China”, with the Second United Front breaking down entirely in 1940.

Weakened by the war against the Japanese and the poor leadership of incompetent generals, the KMT steadily lost ground to the smaller and more flexible People’s Liberation Army. As such, the National Republican Army was slowly pushed back to the Taiwan Strait. Eventually, they were forced to abandon the mainland entirely and establish a government in exile on Taiwan. Chiang’s government would most likely have collapsed if President Truman had not ordered the US Navy’s Seventh Fleet to the Taiwan Strait as a result of our intervention in the Korean War.

Bolstered by US development aid, Taiwan became an economic power and eventually rose to become one of the Asian Tigers. However, they must walk a tightrope in world affairs. In order to open diplomatic and economic relations with China, the People’s Republic requires nations formally sever any ties to the Republic in Taiwan. Taiwan requires similar severing of relations with the mainland. Which brings us to the modern day.

Most nations of the world officially recognize the PRC on the Mainland, while also carrying out informal diplomatic operations with the RoC on Taiwan. Kenya is not one of these nations. They are part of a significant minority who only recognize the PRC while having no diplomatic relations with the Republic. As such, if they choose to deport Taiwanese nationals from their country, there is only one place to go.

The Mainland.

For rather obvious reasons, these individuals did not want to go to China.

Arrested in suspicion of their role in a Telecomm fraud, the fifteen individuals were cleared of all charges by a Kenyan court only a few days before. Informed they would be deported upon their release from prison, the innocent men and women chose instead to barricade themselves in the prison cell until such time as the diplomatic offices of Taiwan in South Africa – the closest diplomatic personnel in the region – could arrive to prevent this miscarriage of justice and their transportation to a police state where they would face imprisonment as political prisoners in the Chinese Laogai and likely vivisection for the sale of their organs on the black market.

A common result of political prisoners who are dumped into the Chinese political prisoner system.

They were able to resist for one hour before the Kenyan police were able to overwhelm them with tear gas and break down the walls. Together with 15 individuals who had been arrested but not tried, they were boarded onto a plane under the supervision of three Chinese government officials and flown to the Mainland against their will and in clear violation of international standards of justice. They are most likely currently in the presence of eight other individuals – including one Taiwanese with dual-citizenship in the United States – who were transported to the Mainland against their will.

Taiwan has denounced this as a kidnapping on the grounds the individuals deported to China carried Taiwanese passports. They have also denounced Chinese Embassy officials in Kenya’s capital of Nairobi for obstructing their diplomatic personnel and ensuring the Taiwanese nationals were deported to a nation where they faced likely prosecution for their political beliefs.

If you want to help, here is how.

Contact the US Embassy in Beijing and demand they seek the release of these individuals and their safe return to Taiwan.
Phone (86-10) 8531-3000

You can also contact the American Citizen Services office in Beijing
Phone (86-10) 8531-4200
email BeijingACS@state.gov

You can also contact the Chinese Embassy in Washington DC
Phone (202) 495-2266
email chinaembpress_us@mfa.gov.cn

If you want to voice your displeasure with the Chinese Embassy in Kenya
Phone 254-20-2726851
email chinaemb_ke@mfa.gov.cn

You can contact the Kenyans embassy to the US here
Phone (202) 387-6101
email complaints@kenyanembassy.com

Or, you can complain to the Kenyan Ministry of the Interior (the organization in charge of law enforcement) here
Phone 254-20-2227411
email cs@interior.go.ke
ps@interior.go.ke
ps.pais@kenya.go.ke

Please, contact these organizations and voice your displeasure for their actions and join me in praying for these individuals.

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