| Murder of Poon Hiu-wing | |
|---|---|
 The victim, Poon Hiu-wing | |
| Location | Purple Garden Hotel, Datong District, Taipei, Taiwan |
| Date | 17 February 2018 |
Attack type | Battery, homicide (strangulation) |
| Victim | Amber Poon Hiu-wing |
| Perpetrator | Chan Tong-kai |
| Motive | Couple dispute |
| 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests |
|---|
 |
Amber Poon Hiu-wing (5 August 1997 – 17 February 2018),[note 1][1][2] a 20-year-old pregnant woman from Hong Kong, was killed in Taipei on 17 February 2018 whilst on vacation with her boyfriend Chan Tong-kai (born 13 December 1998),[note 2] aged 19 at the time and from Shenzhen. Chan admitted to Hong Kong authorities that he killed his girlfriend in a hotel room in Taipei, stole her belongings, left her body in the bushes, and flew back to Hong Kong. As the murder happened in Taiwan where they had no jurisdiction, the authorities in Hong Kong could not charge Chan with murder, and could only sentence him on money laundering charges resulting from the killing. Chan could not be extradited to Taiwan either since there is no extradition treaty between Hong Kong and Taiwan.
In February 2019, the Hong Kong government cited this case as the rationale for a proposed amendment to the ordinances regarding extradition to establish a mechanism for case-by-case transfers of fugitives, on the order of the chief executive, to any jurisdiction with which the city lacks a formal extradition treaty. While the proposed amendment would allow Hong Kong to extradite Chan to Taiwan, concerns over the inclusion of mainland China in the amendment led to the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests. As such, the murder case is often cited by the media for ultimately sparking the months-long unrest.[3][4][5]
Cite error: There are <ref group=note> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=note}} template (see the help page).
- ^ "'Do one good thing': Carrie Lam urged to act on murder victim case". South China Morning Post. 12 May 2022. Retrieved 14 August 2023.
- ^ Standard, The. "Chan Tong-kai blacklisted by airlines and can't fly to Taiwan: Peter Koon". The Standard. Retrieved 14 August 2023.
- ^ Sui, Cindy (23 October 2019). "The murder case where no-one wants the killer". BBC News. Archived from the original on 7 November 2019. Retrieved 26 November 2019.
- ^ Victor, Daniel; May, Tiffany (15 June 2019). "The Murder Case That Lit the Fuse in Hong Kong". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 6 November 2019. Retrieved 26 November 2019.
- ^ "How an obscure Taiwan murder case led to Hong Kong's mega-protests". Los Angeles Times. 19 June 2019. Archived from the original on 4 December 2019. Retrieved 26 November 2019.