Taiwan presidential outcome may hold key to Chan impasse

The seemingly hopeless stalemate faced in Chan Tong-kai going over to Taiwan to turn himself in over the murder of his girlfriend Amber Poon Hiu-wing back in 2018 will not see any new progress until the island's top leadership race in January, said Legislative Council member Peter Koon Ho-ming.

Koon, who has been helping Chan since his release from a Hong Kong prison four years ago, said Chan was currently still living in a secluded area while waiting to turn himself in to Taiwan authorities, and he is not as free as outsiders imagined.

Chan was arrested in Hong Kong over money laundering in March 2018.

He had been living in a safe house provided by the police since being released on October 23, 2019, and moved to a remote place after leaving it in June 2021.

Koon said Chan's state of mind was "not good definitely" and that he could only wait for progress on his plan to surrender to Taiwan.

In the meantime, Chan was passing the time on the Internet and playing computer games.

"But to a certain extent, it is not as free as we think," as it was torturous to wait for an indefinite period of time, Koon said.

To resolve the stalemate requires, he said, only approval from the Taiwanese side for Chan to fly over, and Koon's belief is that there may be progress on this issue after Taiwan's presidential election in January.

He added that Chan had not contacted Poon's mother.

When asked about Chan's plans if there are changes in Taiwan's political landscape or if the new leadership does not intend to approve his entry, Koon said Chan currently does not have any plans and that everything hinges on the Taiwan elections.

As to whether he had commissioned mainland authorities to facilitate discussions on Chan's surrender, Koon said there has been no such commission, citing the strained cross-strait relations.

Chan admitted to Hong Kong police that he killed Poon during their trip in Taiwan and promised to turn himself in to Taiwan, but has yet to do so as there is no extradition agreement between Hong Kong and the island.

The SAR in 2019 proposed to amend the Hong Kong extradition bill to hand Chan to Taiwan, which would also allow transfers of fugitives to the mainland and Macau, sparking large-scale protests that forced the bill to be finally withdrawn.

Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu, then the Secretary for Security and who played a key role in the push for the extradition bill, said in July that he "definitely" would not promote it in his term and said his top priority was the legislation of Article 23 of the Basic Law.