An investigation into New Party Youth Corps members was launched because Wang Ping-chung (王炳忠) is suspected of attempting to create a paramilitary organization to destabilize Taiwan with financial backing from China, political and national security experts said yesterday.
Media personality and political pundit Clara Chou (周玉蔻) made the allegation during a talk show on Thursday, saying she had information that one of Wang’s family members recently received NT$5 million (US$166,845) in a bank account and she believes that the money came from China.
The New Party, through Wang and his colleagues’ efforts, “has established a paramilitary organization in Taiwan, which was set up on behalf of the Chinese government. The members would be receiving military training. Its purpose is to spring into action in the event of a conflict between Taiwan and China,” Chou said.
“All the information points to Wang and his New Party colleagues having contravened the National Security Act (國家安全法). They are being investigated because reports indicated they were developing networks and organizations in Taiwan under the guidance of the Chinese Communist Party,” she said.
National security expert and retired army colonel Tseng Miao-hung (曾淼泓) concurred with Chou’s information, saying that top-level intelligence reports indicate that China has been active in establishing paramilitary organizations and political warfare units, and offering financial backing to unification parties in Taiwan.
“The judiciary and law enforcement agencies must work together to uncover the extent of the recruitment and penetration into Taiwanese government and military agencies, and uproot them. The New Party’s paramilitary organization is only one of China’s proxies that forms part of their ‘united front’ works against Taiwan,” said Tseng, who specializes in military intelligence and warfare information, and formerly headed National Defense University’s computer center.
“China’s proxy groups in Taiwan receive regular funding through indirect channels and some have been trained by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army [PLA] to conduct unification political campaigns and espionage, recruit government and military officials, and entice them to pass on classified information,” he said.
“China’s paramilitary organizations, or ‘fifth column troops,’ are concealed as ‘sleeper cells’ conducting underground activities most of the time, but when military conflict arises, such as China trying to invade Taiwan, then these organizations and personnel are expected to spring into action in coordination with the PLA,” Tseng said. “Their mission is to carry out advanced strikes, such as destroying or disabling Taiwan’s telecommunication lines, power plants, main transportation routes and bridges, as well as other vital infrastructure.”
DPP Legislator Wang Ding-yu (王定宇) talked about the case on the talk show with Chou, saying prosecutors must have had sufficient evidence against New Party members to be able to carry out Tuesday’s arrests.
The behind-the-scenes work has been going on for more than one year and the investigation was focused on national security breaches, he said.
“From what I have gathered, they contravened Article 2-1 of the National Security Act, which prohibits the collection and delivery of confidential documents, images or information, or developing an organization for China or for another foreign country,” he said.
At a news conference in Taipei yesterday, Wang Ping-chung downplayed Chou’s allegations.
“I do not know what her source of information is. Prosecutors did not present any information about this,” Wang said.
Separately yesterday, Minister of Justice Chiu Tai-san (邱太三), when asked if he knew about Chou’s allegations, said: “No, I have no information and cannot comment on any individual case.”
Additional reporting by Stacy Hsu
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods