Murder Suspect Snagged in Hotel Quarantine

A murder suspect who fled from Taiwan to China may have made himself an easy target for authorities as he's now under a mandatory 14-day hotel quarantine. The few travelers admitted to China must spend at least 14 days in quarantine as part of efforts to combat the spread of COVID-19, per CNN. According to Taiwan's Criminal Investigation Bureau, the male suspect in his 30s with the last name Huang, accused of fatally shooting a 45-year-old man twice in the neck in New Taipei City early Monday, hopped on a plane to the Chinese coastal city of Xiamen within hours, only to become trapped by China's policies.

Taiwanese authorities say Huang carefully planned the murder, waiting outside his victim's home. He allegedly opted not to shoot the man with the surname Ho when he emerged with a child around 7am, but opened fire when Ho returned from dropping the child at school about an hour later, reports Taiwan News and the Central News Agency. Ho's wife and youngest daughter were reportedly home at the time. Huang allegedly then abandoned his vehicle in a shopping mall parking lot, changed clothes, took a taxi to a metro station, changed clothes again, then took another taxi to Taoyuan International Airport, where he boarded a flight to Xiamen around noon. A gun found in a drain outside an airport terminal is thought to be the murder weapon, per Taiwan News.

The CIB subsequently sent an extradition request, received by China's Ministry of Public Security, per CNN. It's unclear how Beijing will respond, however, given that relations between Taiwan and China are at their lowest in decades. Extraditions across the Taiwan Strait have fallen dramatically since Tsai Ing-wen became president of Taiwan in 2016. There were just 17 extraditions that year, compared to 63 in 2015. Only four suspects were returned to Taiwan from China in 2020, and none had been returned this year as of September, CNN reports, noting some users on Chinese social media site Weibo see the case as an opportunity for Beijing to advance its claim of sovereignty over Taiwan. (More Taiwan stories.)