Chang An-le (張安樂), a fugitive former leader of the Bamboo Union gang, said in China yesterday that he would seek to return to Taiwan “in the near future” to help push Hong Kong’s “one country, two systems” model for Taiwan, the Chinese-language United Daily News reported.
Chang, also known as “White Wolf,” established the China Unification Promotion Party in September 2005. He has since shown support for the “one China” principle and spoken out against Taiwanese independence.
He said yesterday that he did not mind being labeled a sympathizer of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) or a gangster and that he simply wanted to return to Taiwan to make “some contributions” to improving cross-strait ties.
“I want more Taiwanese to understand that the only way to maintain the ‘status quo’ across the Taiwan Strait is to complete negotiations on the ‘one country, two systems’ [principle] with the CCP,” he said. “I hope I can do something to push peaceful unification as long as I am alive.”
After he returns, Chang said he would try to form a “third political force” to cultivate politicians who sympathize with the CCP and nominate candidates to run for public office. They would also establish local offices around the nation to push the “one country, two systems” model implemented in Hong Kong following retrocession in 1997.
Although Taipei and Beijing signed an agreement on mutual judicial assistance and cross-strait cooperation to fight crime in June 2009, Chang — who is wanted by Taiwanese authorities and has a successful business career in China — has remained a fugitive since he fled to China in 1996.
“If I committed any crime, it might have been my involvement with a crime syndicate,” he said. “However, what matters is whether a person is involved in the crime the syndicate commits rather than whether that person is in the crime organization.”
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) was low-key about Chang’s plans to return to Taiwan.
MAC Deputy Minister Liu Te-shun (劉德勳) said it was a matter of public security and that the media should turn to law enforcement agencies for comment.
Asked for comment, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Spokesman Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) said the party had no knowledge of Chang’s plans to return to Taiwan and added that if he were to return, the government would handle the matter in accordance with the law.
Su declined to comment on Chang’s alleged close ties with some KMT members.
In 2007, President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) elder sister, Ma Yi-nan (馬以南), met Chang during a campaign party for Ma, who was running for president at the time, in Shenzhen, China.
Ma Ying-jeou’s campaign team later confirmed the meeting, but denied that Chang had donated money to Ma Ying-jeou’s campaign.
Chang is also believed to have orchestrated a series of “protests” against a visit by exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama during a visit to Taiwan in August 2009 and to have mobilized gang members to ensure security at political events in Taiwan.
Meanwhile, a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) official said there were unresolved questions about Chang’s relationship with the KMT and that the government should make it clear he would still be prosecuted if he returned to Taiwan.
“The KMT still owes us an explanation on their relationship with the … fugitive,” the official said on condition of anonymity
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY MO YAN-CHIH, VINCENT Y. CHAO AND STAFF WRITER
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique