Lawmakers yesterday demanded that the judiciary and law enforcement agencies investigating Chang An-le (張安樂) and the Chinese Unity Promotion Party (CUPP) take action, amid reports of their alleged political and financial links to the Chinese Communist Party, following violence that erupted at the “Sing! China: Shanghai-Taipei Music Festival” in Taipei on Sunday.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said he supported the National Police Agency’s efforts to crack down on illegal gang activities, including through arrests, and confiscation of firearms and other weapons, but added that they must also investigate the gangs’ finances and uncover their major sources of funding and firearms.
Chen said he had evidence that Chang, who is the CUPP chairman, had a company registered under his name in China and also controlled other firms and had various business links in China.
“Reportedly, the Chinese government deposited funds into Chang’s company in China, from which he can wire money to Taiwan to finance the CUPP’s operations,” Chen said. “The CUPP is registered as a political party, but we have checked its accounts. They had no revenue from membership fees and there were other irregularities in their financial reporting.”
Chen urged the National Security Bureau to launch a top-level investigation as the party’s suspected ties to the Chinese government could have grave implications for Taiwan’s security and society.
New Power Party (NPP) Legislator Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) accused Chang and the CUPP of “taking money from China to beat up Taiwanese under the guidance of the Chinese government.”
He urged law enforcement agencies to investigate and closely monitor the activities of CUPP members.
“In the aftermath of the violence toward students, Chang threatened to beat up those who spoke out and later even threatened to kill them. Chang’s brazen display and his utter contempt for the law is astounding,” Hsu said. “Taiwan is a democratic nation and we follow the law. What Chang said was totally out of bounds and we call on the judiciary to investigate the CUPP and Chang.”
DPP Legislator Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩) on Tuesday cited reports alleging that China paid Chang 5 million yuan (US$749,636) a year and paid the Bamboo Union syndicate 30 million yuan a year to fund their activities in Taiwan.
Investigators yesterday said they had identified 26 people associated with the CUPP who are also suspected members of the Bamboo Union, some of whom occupy senior and mid-level ranks in the gang.
Investigations indicate that these 26 people form the core of a semi-paramilitary unit controlled by the Bamboo Union Gang, officials said.
Members of the unit, known as the Six Chapters’ First Squadron (六堂一隊) — as it is comprised of six chapters of the Bamboo Union — are in their 20s to their 40s and trained in martial arts, and they are suspected of being fighters for the gang and the CUPP, police said.
Aligned with Chang and his pro-China unification ideology, the fighting force meddled in political events and civil society movements, inciting violence and creating disturbances, police said.
Chang, CUPP members and the suspected fighting force, with support from the Bamboo Union and Four Seas Gang, are suspected of causing confrontations and fighting to suppress the rising tide of the Taiwanese identity movement.
Investigators said Chang and the CUPP are suspected of inciting violence during the 2014 Sunflower student movement; at protests by high-school students against the Ministry of Education in 2015; at an attack against Hong Kong democracy activists in January this year; and against university students at the music event on Sunday.
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