Members of the Green Party Taiwan and Taiwan Action Party Alliance yesterday filed a judicial complaint against former Taiwan Provincial Government secretary for foreign affairs Kuo Kuan-ying (郭冠英), saying that he undermined national security when he publicly declared that he represents the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to monitor the Jan. 11 presidential and legislative elections.
Kuo on Thursday accompanied pro-China candidates of the New Party registering at the Central Election Committee and told the media that he was “representing the CCP to monitor the elections of Taiwan Province.”
The complaint requested that Taipei prosecutors indict Kuo for breaches of the National Security Act (國家安全法) and contravening the Criminal Code as a public official illegally working with and disclosing classified materials to an enemy state.
Photo: CNA
“Kuo has openly stated that he is working for the CCP. That is an obvious breach of the National Security Act, and he is likely developing spy networks and providing highly classified materials to China,” Green Party Taiwan executive member Chang Chu-chin (張竹芩) said.
Kuo breached an article in the act prohibiting the collection and transfer of confidential information, or the creation of a covert organization for another nation or China, which carry a maximum penalty of seven years in prison and a fine of up to NT$100 million (US$3.28 million), and could result in the termination of his monthly pension as a civil servant, Chang said.
“Kuo says he works for the CCP, but he is receiving a pension from our government, the Republic of China,” alliance legislative candidate Yang Chih-yuan (楊智淵) said. “He is obviously a traitor and working to subvert our nation.”
Yang called on the public not to vote for parties that are “selling out Taiwan and pandering to China,” warning that Beijing is taking advantage of Taiwan’s freedom and democratic system to infiltrate all sectors of society with money and misinformation.
Amid calls online for him to return his pension, reportedly about NT$60,000 per month, Kuo was yesterday quoted by the Chinese-language Apple Daily as saying that his pension is about NT$48,000.
Kuo previously served in the now-defunct Government Information Office in Toronto. He was dismissed from that post in 2009 for writing several articles calling ethnic Taiwanese taibazi (台巴子, Taiwanese rednecks) and referring to himself as a “high-class Mainlander.”
He also wrote that China should suppress Taiwanese instead of granting them political freedom once it has taken Taiwan by force.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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