Murder of Poon Hiu-wing

Amber Poon Hiu-wing (5 August 1997 – 17 February 2018), 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), 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 Hong Kong authorities had no jurisdiction, Chan could only be sentenced on money laundering charges resulting from the murder. Chan could not be extradited to Taiwan either since no extradition treaty exists 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.