Cambodia deported 25 Taiwanese nationals to China on Friday on fraud charges despite staunch opposition from the Taiwanese government. The 25 Taiwanese suspects were deported along with 14 Chinese suspects, all of whom were detained in connection with telephone fraud scam.

Cambodian immigration officer Gen. Ouk Haiseila said all the suspects were deported on a special plane arranged by the Chinese government, adding that each suspect was escorted by two Chinese police and a total 90 Chinese police officials supervised the deportation process.

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Reports indicate that initially, the Cambodian government had planned to deport only 35 suspects, but four more suspects were detained in the raid this past week.         

Earlier this year, Malaysia and Kenya had also deported several Taiwanese citizens to China in connection with the telephone fraud scam. The deportation had irked Taiwanese government, who accused China of abducting its citizens from countries that do not recognize the sovereignty of the island nation.  

At present, only a handful of countries recognize Taiwan as a country, while most countries support China's "One China" principle, which states that China and Taiwan are part of one China. Experts claim that China is using all its diplomatic and economic clout to internationally isolate Taiwan. They also claim that the Chinese government is resorting to deportation tactics to pile up pressure on the new Taiwanese government led by pro-independent leader Tsai Ing-wen.

Cross-strait relations have been on a downswing ever since Tsai and her Democratic People Party (DPP) won a landslide victory in January's presidential election. Asserting her pro-independence views, Tsai conspicuously omitted the mention of "One China" principle in her inaugural speech on May 20.

TagsCambodia, Cambodia and China, china, China and Taiwan