On January 4th, 2025, the Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of China (Taiwan) stated that Director Chen Bai-li led a delegation to visit the Republic of Palau in the Pacific in December 2024. During the visit, they met with officials from the Palauan Ministry of Justice to share experiences in investigating transnational crimes and to assist Palauan police in cracking down on Chinese mainland online gambling money laundering dens.
The Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of China announced in a press release on the 3rd that Director Chen Bai-li visited Palau from December 11th to 14th, 2024. During the visit, he met with officials including the Acting Minister of Justice and Prosecutor General of Palau, the director of the financial intelligence agency, and the chief of the public safety department.
Since the Taiwan-Palau Judicial Assistance Agreement came into effect on June 12th, 2024, the Republic of China and Palau have further deepened their cooperation in the judicial field to jointly combat transnational crimes such as drug trafficking, human trafficking, money laundering, online gambling, and telecommunications fraud. In the face of increasingly serious transnational economic crime problems, Director Chen Bai-li, along with relevant department directors, personally shared Taiwan’s practical experience in investigating telecommunication network scams and online gambling dens with law enforcement agencies in Palau to strengthen law enforcement cooperation and promote transnational crime prevention.
Following Chen Bai-li’s visit, Palauan police successfully cracked down on an online gambling money laundering den operated by Chinese nationals on December 20th, 2024. They arrested 7 Chinese suspects and seized over 70 mobile phones, more than 20 computer mainframes, and screens. Based on the computer files and records seized at the scene, it was preliminarily determined that this den was an overseas money laundering center for a Chinese criminal group.
This case, in which the Investigation Bureau shared experiences in investigating transnational crimes to assist Palau in cracking down on online gambling money laundering dens, demonstrates the potential risks posed by proliferating criminal activities. Palau is actively enhancing cooperation with the international community, particularly in judicial cooperation, to enhance financial regulation and technological forensic capabilities to jointly combat transnational money laundering activities.
In recent years, China’s strategic expansion in the Pacific region has become increasingly evident. Palau, located at the crossroads of Southeast Asia, Australia, and the Western Pacific, is strategically important in the Pacific and has become a potential target for Chinese infiltration. Chinese infiltration activities may even involve cross-border transfers by criminal groups. With international organizations cracking down on transnational crimes and global financial regulations becoming stricter, Chinese telecom fraud and money laundering dens previously based in countries in Southeast Asia like Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos have recently shifted southward to Palau.
Palau has become a new target for domestic Chinese money laundering groups. This trend not only brings potential risks to Palau’s financial system but also threatens the economic stability and strategic structure of the Pacific region. As important diplomatic allies who share democratic values, relations between Palau and the Republic of China are strengthened through exchanges of experiences in combating transnational telecommunications fraud, drug trafficking, and money laundering conducted by Director Chen Bai-li and his team from the Investigation Bureau to deepen judicial cooperation and assist Palau in enhancing its technological investigative capabilities.
The Investigation Bureau stated that it is implementing the Executive Yuan’s “New Generation Counter-Fraud Strategy Action Plan 2.0” to strengthen efforts to combat cross-border fraud, prevent fraud crimes abroad, and block the infiltration of economic crimes by China into the Republic of China’s diplomatic allies. This lays a solid foundation for judicial mutual assistance between Taiwan and Palau in jointly combating transnational crimes, thereby safeguarding security and stability in the Pacific region.