Beijing is giving special permission to China-based Taiwanese businesspeople allowing them to campaign for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) ahead of Saturday’s nine-in-one elections, a Taiwanese businessman surnamed Kuo (郭) told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper).
Kuo told the paper he saw a large billboard outside the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Convention Center on Saturday last week that bore the message: “Help save Taipei and Taichung,” along with photographs of KMT Taipei mayoral candidate Sean Lien (連勝文) and Greater Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強), who is seeking re-election.
Kuo said he was surprised to see the sign, adding that judging from Shanghai residents’ puzzlement, it must have been aimed at China-based Taiwanese businesspeople.
Photo: Courtesy of a Taiwanese businessman surnamed Kuo
Addressing the claims in the Liberty Times report, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said setting up such billboards in China was next to impossible without the approval of the Chinese government.
“It is clear that the Chinese government is getting involved and taking sides in the Taiwanese elections,” Chen said.
The lawmaker said that no Taiwanese candidate had ever had a billboard in China before, not even President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) when he was running for re-election in 2012.
Chen added that the Shanghai sign and reports of organizations buying plane tickets for pro-KMT Taiwanese businesspeople to return from China to vote show that Beijing is intervening in the elections.
Chen was referring to comments made by Chinese Production Party Chairperson Lu Yuexiang (盧月香) last month in which she said that during the 2012 presidential campaign, she paid for China-based Taiwanese businesspeople’s return ticket to boost voting rates for Ma.
Lu’s party was formed by Chinese spouses married to Taiwanese.
Last month, the DPP accused Lien of vote-buying, saying that a KMT supporters’ club in China was offering to help cover pan-blue voters’ plane fare to Taiwan.
It is evident that the Chinese government is trying to help one side in the municipal elections and hoping to influence the outcomes by rallying Taiwanese businesspeople across the Taiwan Strait, Taiwan Solidarity Union Legislator Lai Chen-chang (賴振昌) said.
Lai said he wants to know if the billboard was encouraging people to return to Taiwan and vote, adding that the government should look into the matter.
KMT spokesperson Charles Chen (陳以信) said his party has nothing to do with the billboard in Shanghai and that it was likely set up by Taiwanese businesspeople there.
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