A total of 77 Chinese suspects, including 45 Taiwanese, were deported by the Kenya police to mainland China reportedly because of telecom fraud.

On Saturday, 10 of them were already repatriated, while on Wednesday, the remaining 67 people were sent to the mainland.

The China state media Xinhua News reported that Taipei claimed that China "illegally" pressured the officials of Nairobi to deport its eight citizens after being cleared of the fraud charges, "in a case that inflamed anger in Taiwan."

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Amid this concern, China's public security ministry declared that "Mainland police will investigate the Taiwanese suspects."

Meanwhile, it was learned that Taiwan already filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against a number of officials in Kenya for reportedly failing to recognize the court's decision clearing some of the suspects of the fraud charges.

Taiwan's foreign ministry said that the officials "allowed Kenyan police to disrespect a court ruling, forcefully detaining our citizens for over 24 hours and illegally cooperating with mainland personnel to deport them to China."

In the meantime, according to China's Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) spokesperson An Fengshan, some of the deportees were accused of defrauding the Chinese people of more than 600 million yuan or $93 million by using internet phone accounts.

"Many mainland people suffered. Many elderly people, teachers, students, migrant workers, laid-off workers and were deceived," the TAO official disclosed. "Some retired people who toiled all their lives were had their life savings taken from them, and are now penniless."

It was noted that Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council head Andrew Hsia shared that the Taiwanese authorities may send senior officials to China "within days" to discuss about the issue.

Tagschina, Taiwan, Telephone Fraud