A Chinese mainland government spokesman on Wednesday rejected the accusation that the mainland failed to repatriate a fugitive Taiwan businessman.

"The accusation in Taiwan that the mainland has not repatriated Wang You-theng to Taiwan is groundless," said Yang Yi, spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council.

According to Taiwan media reports, Wang left the mainland for the United States on Jan. 13. The Taiwan authorities issued an arrest warrant for Wang was on Jan. 15, Yang said.

Wang You-theng, chairman of the Rebar Asia Pacific Group, fled to the mainland more than two weeks ago, a day after two of his group's listed units said they would reorganize after years of mounting debts and heavy losses, Taiwan's local media reported.

Yang said the Taiwan-based Strait Exchange Foundation (SEF) had written two letters to mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) on Jan. 12 and 15, but the SEF only provided information of Wang and his wife and expressed the hope that the ARATS could help collect evidence in Wang's case.

With increasingly frequent cross-Strait exchanges, the mainland has actively cooperated with Taiwan police to crack down on crimes to protect the life and property safety of people on both sides, Yang said.

Yang cited the case of the gang broken up by the two sides in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, on Feb. 3, 2006, as an example. Members of the gang were arrested and 57.4 kg of heroin was seized.

On Jan. 12 this year, the Ministry of Public Security announced a man wanted by Taiwan police for robbing an armored bank vehicle had been arrested.

Li Hanyang, who worked as an armored vehicle driver in Taipei, stole 56 million New Taiwan dollars (1.75 million U.S. dollars) after drugging a colleague in the van on Jan. 2, before flying to Hong Kong.

In April 2005, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Honorary Chairman of the Kuomintang Party Lien Chan reached a consensus on joint efforts to combat crimes.

The mainland would continue to promote joint combat against crimes and safeguard the legitimate rights of people on both sides, Yang said.

Source: Xinhua