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My point is that the situation is much more grey than you're painting it. From what I've read about the situation, it was the Vanuatuan authorities themselves w
by tepidandroid 7y ago
My point is that the situation is much more grey than you're painting it. From what I've read about the situation, it was the Vanuatuan authorities themselves who arrested the six suspects. The Chinese government merely filed a complaint. They were then deported back to China, escorted by Chinese law enforcement. Many countries (including the U.S) assert that their laws apply to their citizens even when travelling overseas.
Also, all of these suspects are Chinese nationals who applied for Vanuatuan citizenship. Four out of six of them were granted citizenship. One out of the four forged his criminal record check form in order to obtain citizenship [1]. It sounds as though they were trying to use Vanuatuan citizenship as a shield against criminal deportation, which clearly the Vanuatuan government wants no part of. Vanuatu has been quite blatant in citizenship-for-money exchanges [2][3][4] in recent years and many Russian and Chinese crime syndicates have been taking advantage of this.
In addition, all of this has been done with the explicit cooperation of the Vanuatuan government, legally, under Vanuatu's Immigration Act which gives them the right to deport without notice [5]. All this is not to argue that there should or shouldn't be some kind of due process, but it's far from the extra-judicial kidnappings which you are insinuating. I would view it more as an informal, case-by-case extradition treaty.
[1] https://asiapacificreport.nz/2019/07/05/some-detained-chinese-accused-were-support-citizenship-applicants/ https://asiapacificreport.nz/2019/07/05/some-detained-chines...
[2] https://www.economist.com/international/2018/09/29/selling-citizenship-is-big-business-and-controversial https://www.economist.com/international/2018/09/29/selling-c...
[3] https://fortune.com/2017/10/10/vanuatu-accepts-bitcoin-for-citizenship/ https://fortune.com/2017/10/10/vanuatu-accepts-bitcoin-for-c...
[4] http://dailypost.vu/news/sale-of-vanuatu-passport-degrading-sokomanu/article_7ff691d1-f7f0-5f35-aaa5-c19483f2ebc5.html http://dailypost.vu/news/sale-of-vanuatu-passport-degrading-...
[5] https://www.abc.net.au/radio-australia/programs/pacificbeat/vanuatu-government-defends-criminals-deportation-to-china/11290786 https://www.abc.net.au/radio-australia/programs/pacificbeat/...