A member of a pro-Taiwan independence group yesterday filed a complaint with the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office accusing Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) central committee member Vincent Hsu (徐正文) of doctoring the passenger list of the first charter flight of Taiwanese evacuees from Wuhan on Monday.
The flight, which landed in Taoyuan, sparked debate when it was discovered that three of the 247 people on board had not been on the priority list Taiwan provided to China.
The outcry escalated when one of the three passengers tested positive for the 2019 novel coronavirus, becoming the nation’s 11th case.
Photo: Chien Li-chung, Taipei Times
Hsu, who represents a self-help group of Taiwanese in Wuhan and helped arrange the flight, could have breached the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法) and the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (兩岸人民關係條例) by helping China “smuggle” extra passengers on board the flight, Taiwan Republic Office director Chilly Chen (陳峻涵) said.
More than 10 passengers on the flight were Chinese spouses of Taiwanese, taking priority over children and the elderly, who remain at risk in Wuhan, Chen said.
“It is China’s virus, a modern Trojan horse executed jointly by the red [Chinese Communist Party] and the blue [KMT] camps,” he said. “It is unbelievable that Hsu claimed that he was unaware of the change of passengers.”
On Thursday, the KMT said in a statement, after Hsu held several news conferences and spoke to reporters about the outbreak, that his remarks did not represent those of the party.
Hsu’s comments helped to “foment panic” and “severely damaged the party’s image and reputation,” it said, adding that his party membership would be suspended.
Additional reporting by CNA and Shih Hsiao-kuang
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