The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court ruling annulling the 2007 election of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Liao Cheng-ching (廖正井) in Taoyuan County because of bribery.
The judges’ ruling said Liao handed out bribes during his campaign in Taoyuan County for the county’s second electorate.
The High Court found Liao guilty of giving NT$1.05 million (US$32,400) to Chen Yung-tien (陳永田), president of a club for township chiefs in the county, to distribute to the township chiefs.
The lawmaker was also found guilty of giving NT$100,000 to Liao Ching-fu (廖慶福), a village chief in Kuanyin Township (觀音), who was told to distribute the money to several families in the area to buy votes for the candidate.
The High Court’s ruling upheld the Taoyuan District Court’s verdict in October last year annulling Liao Cheng-ching’s win. He had appealed that verdict. The High Court’s ruling is final and cannot be appealed.
The lower court had also convicted Liao Cheng-ching of bribery and last month handed him a prison sentence of three years and six months. Liao also appealed that ruling.
The appeal for the bribery ruling is currently under review by the High Court.
At the legislature, Liao said that although the investigation records and evidence used in his trial were flawed, the judge would not order a further examination of the materials.
Liao said he hoped the Control Yuan would clear his name.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
‘SOMETHING SPECIAL’: Donald Trump vowed to reward his supporters, while President William Lai said he was confident the Taiwan-US partnership would continue Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the US early yesterday morning, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts. With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency. As of press time last night, The Associated Press had Trump on 277 electoral college votes to 224 for US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee, with Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Michigan and Nevada yet to finalize results. He had 71,289,216 votes nationwide, or 51 percent, while Harris had 66,360,324 (47.5 percent). “We’ve been through so