Members and former members of the China Unification Promotion Party have been arrested over the past two years for direct involvement in organized crime-related incidents, showing that it may still have strong ties with local organized crime groups, police said.
Founded in 2005 by former leading Bamboo Union member Chang An-le (張安樂), commonly known as “White Wolf” (白狼), the party’s main objective is unification with China.
Chang, who had been on the run in China for more than 17 years, returned to Taiwan in June.
Photo: Facebook
Though it boasts a total membership of close to 20,000, it is not one of the more active political parties. Each party branch is named after a Chinese person of note from antiquity, such as Zilu (子路), one of Confucius’ 72 most renowned disciples, and Yeh Shih (葉適), an official in the Southern Song Dynasty from Wenzhou in Zhejiang Province.
Taoyuan County police department’s criminal investigation division raided the party’s Yeh Shih party headquarters branch early on Wednesday and arrested Wang Huan-hua (王煥華) and four other party members.
The division said that Wang claimed to be the chief of the Yeh Shih branch office, which was located at a local car-washing lot, adding that while he seemed to just be a businessman on the surface, he had used Chang’s support to secure his “turf,” obtain illegal guns and used them to “settle” disputes, and engaged in racketeering across Taipei, Taoyuan and Greater Taichung.
Wang, who had also been on a government list of gang figures to be cracked down on, had met Chang in China in 2010, the division said, adding that Chang had tasked Wang to become the head of the Yeh Shih branch after learning that Wang’s family originated in Wenzhou.
The division also said that Wang had ordered two gang members to rob an art collector surnamed Tseng (曾) in Taipei City after learning that Tseng had various valuable paintings in his house.
The gang members had not succeeded in the attempt, but the Vietnamese girlfriend of Tseng’s son had been pushed from the fourth floor of the building as she was in the process of calling the police during the robbery, the division said.
The police said Wang had also hosted a drug party in June and raped a woman who went by the pseudonym “shuiling” (水靈) who worked at a bar and had also severely beaten her in the bar where she worked, as well as uploading audio files of the rape.
Wang was arrested on Wednesday and sent to Taoyuan District Prosecutor’s Office on charges of organized crime, extortion, obstruction of liberty, obstruction of sexual autonomy and illegal ownership of guns and drugs.
Meanwhile, the China Unification Promotion Party said on Wednesday night that Wang had applied to leave the party in July, which had been approved following his breaking of party regulations.
The announcement, made on Facebook, included an image of Wang’s party membership card with a corner cut off as a sign of its invalidation.
Hsinchu police said that during an anti-crime operation in February last year, one of the prime suspects, You Chia-how (游家豪) had been a deputy director of the China Unification Promotion Party’s Zilu branch.
New Taipei City (新北市) police department said that during a raid on a local Bamboo Union branch they discovered that the union was using the party as a cover, and even handing out party membership cards to absorb students into the gang.
Additional reporting by Chiang Hsiang
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
Yangmingshan National Park authorities yesterday urged visitors to respect public spaces and obey the law after a couple was caught on a camera livestream having sex at the park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) earlier in the day. The Shilin Police Precinct in Taipei said it has identified a suspect and his vehicle registration number, and would summon him for questioning. The case would be handled in accordance with public indecency charges, it added. The couple entered the park at about 11pm on Thursday and began fooling around by 1am yesterday, the police said, adding that the two were unaware of the park’s all-day live
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
A former soldier and an active-duty army officer were yesterday indicted for allegedly selling classified military training materials to a Chinese intelligence operative for a total of NT$79,440. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Chen Tai-yin (陳泰尹) and Lee Chun-ta (李俊達) for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法) and the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例). Chen left the military in September 2013 after serving alongside then-staff sergeant Lee, now an army lieutenant, at the 21st Artillery Command of the army’s Sixth Corps from 2011 to 2013, according to the indictment. Chen met a Chinese intelligence operative identified as “Wang” (王) through a friend in November
RSS