Taipei: Taiwan on Friday demanded the United States release a diplomat detained in the country on charges of fraud, calling the arrest "improper" and a violation of diplomatic immunity.
Liu Hsien-hsien, who heads the island's representative office in Kansas, was arrested by the FBI yesterday on suspicion of fraud in hiring foreign labour, Taiwan's Foreign Ministry said.
"We sternly protest to the US against the improper arrest and detention... We demand her immediate and unconditional release," it said in a statement.
Taiwan and the United States have agreed to grant each other's diplomatic representatives immunity despite their lack of formal ties, and Liu's arrest violated that agreement, the ministry argued.
According to the ministry, the charge related to the August disappearance of Liu's Philippine maid.
Washington switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979 but has remained a key ally and a leading arms supplier to the island.
PTI
First Published: Friday, November 11, 2011, 21:58