New Party spokesman Wang Ping-chung (王炳忠), his father, and New Party youth wing executives Ho Han-ting (侯漢廷) and Lin Ming-cheng (林明正) were indicted yesterday after prosecutors said they found evidence of espionage and Chinese funding.
The three New Party defendants “had endangered national security and social stability by developing an organization for use by the Chinese government and its military” in contravention of the National Security Act (國家安全法), the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said.
Wang’s father, Wang Chin-pu (王進步), was charged with being an accessory to espionage and other illegal activities conducted by the other defendants.
Photo: Cheng Hung-ta, Taipei Times
Prosecutors said they uncovered evidence of money transfers from China to the three party members to work with convicted Chinese spy Zhou Hongxu (周泓旭) in his efforts to infiltrate Taiwan’s military and connect with Taiwanese politicians and youth organizations.
Zhou, a former graduate student at National Chengchi University, was Beijing’s liaison and was also responsible for monitoring progress and collecting reports made by Wang Ping-chung, Ho and Lin.
Zhou had set up a “Star Fire Secret Unit” and gave the four of them code names: Wang Ping-chung was “One,” Lin was “Two,” Ho was “Three” and Zhou was “Four,” the prosecution statement said.
Nine retired and active military officials were contacted to obtain classified materials, most of whom reportedly had links to the nation’s weapons procurement programs, prosecutors said.
Documents belonging to Wang Ping-chung showed that he was already working with Chinese officials in 2013, before meeting Zhou, and had later written that officials from China’s Taiwan Affairs Office had promised to provide him and Zhou up to NT$16 million (US$535,296 at the current exchange rate) a year for their work in Taiwan, they said.
Prosecutors said they had uncovered Wang Ping-chung’s accounting ledgers that showed money transfers from Chinese sources, in addition to a work document on which Wang Ping-chung wrote: “[I will] work under the guidance and assistance of the Chinese Communist Party to unite and integration the forces working to achieve unification across the Taiwan Strait.”
Wang Ping-chung allegedly cofounded the pro-unification Web site Fire News (燎原新聞網) with Zhou, which they used to recruit Taiwanese into their spy network.
The Taiwan High Court in April handed Zhou a 14-month prison sentence for attempting to recruit Taiwanese officials.
After the indictments were announced, Wang Ping-chung, Ho and Lin held a news conference in Taipei, at which Wang Ping-chung accused the prosecutors of “concocting a story” without any “smoking gun” evidence.
“If the judiciary has the guts, then I will ask for an open trial so that the public can see and judge for themselves,” he said.
Lin accused the administration of “adopting the ways of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party to crack down on dissidents.”
MISINFORMATION: The generated content tends to adopt China’s official stance, such as ‘Taiwan is currently governed by the Chinese central government,’ the NSB said Five China-developed artificial intelligence (AI) language models exhibit cybersecurity risks and content biases, an inspection conducted by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The five AI tools are: DeepSeek, Doubao (豆包), Yiyan (文心一言), Tongyi (通義千問) and Yuanbao (騰訊元寶), the bureau said, advising people to remain vigilant to protect personal data privacy and corporate business secrets. The NSB said it, in accordance with the National Intelligence Services Act (國家情報工作法), has reviewed international cybersecurity reports and intelligence, and coordinated with the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau and the National Police Agency’s Criminal Investigation Bureau to conduct an inspection of China-made AI language
LIMITS: While China increases military pressure on Taiwan and expands its use of cognitive warfare, it is unwilling to target tech supply chains, the report said US and Taiwan military officials have warned that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could implement a blockade within “a matter of hours” and need only “minimal conversion time” prior to an attack on Taiwan, a report released on Tuesday by the US Senate’s China Economic and Security Review Commission said. “While there is no indication that China is planning an imminent attack, the United States and its allies and partners can no longer assume that a Taiwan contingency is a distant possibility for which they would have ample time to prepare,” it said. The commission made the comments in its annual
‘TROUBLEMAKER’: Most countries believe that it is China — rather than Taiwan — that is undermining regional peace and stability with its coercive tactics, the president said China should restrain itself and refrain from being a troublemaker that sabotages peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday. Lai made the remarks after China Coast Guard vessels sailed into disputed waters off the Senkaku Islands — known as the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) in Taiwan — following a remark Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made regarding Taiwan. Takaichi during a parliamentary session on Nov. 7 said that a “Taiwan contingency” involving a Chinese naval blockade could qualify as a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, and trigger Tokyo’s deployment of its military for defense. Asked about the escalating tensions
DISPUTE: A Chinese official prompted a formal protest from Tokyo by saying that ‘the dirty head that sticks itself out must be cut off,’ after Takaichi’s Taiwan remarks Four armed China Coast Guard vessels yesterday morning sailed through disputed waters controlled by Japan, amid a diplomatic spat following Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comments on Taiwan. The four ships sailed around the Senkaku Islands — known as the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) to Taiwan, and which Taiwan and China also claim — on Saturday before entering Japanese waters yesterday and left, the Japan Coast Guard said. The China Coast Guard said in a statement that it carried out a “rights enforcement patrol” through the waters and that it was a lawful operation. As of the end of last month,
RSS