An investigation into New Party spokesman Wang Ping-chung (王炳忠) has found that China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) allegedly promised to pay Wang NT$15 million to NT$16 million (US$506,278 to US$540,030) annually for running the pro-unification propaganda Web site Fire News (燎原新聞網), the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday.
Wang cofounded Fire News, which Chinese student Zhou Hongxu (周泓旭) helped promote as a consultant, and allegedly used it as a platform to recruit members for an organization he was setting up for the Chinese government, the report said.
In a document titled Fire News 2015 Year-end Working Report, Zhou wrote that the Web site had received US$200,000 in funding from the TAO, of which Wang’s father “lost US$20,000.”
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
The TAO, the sole financier of the Web site, promised to pay Wang every year starting this year for the operation of the Web site, which is exempted from taxes in China and can be increased if necessary, the report said.
The payment is to be claimed by Wang in Beijing and is to strictly remain that way, Zhou wrote in the Fire News log.
“There will be risks, considering that the ‘green camp’ will become the ruling party next year [2016]. The source of the funds will be shown as donations from disciples of the Chunghua Cultural and Educational Foundation of the Gods (中華文教代天協會) where Wang’s father works,” an excerpt from the log showed.
Prosecutors said that Zhou was instructed by the TAO to recruit current and retired Taiwanese military officials through Wang — an operation codenamed the “Star Fire T Project” (星火T計劃) — and was to offer various financial rewards to Wang and others, depending on the value of the contacts they introduced.
The operation was aimed at infiltrating the military through obtaining confidential information from digital networks and databases, deepening existing contacts, holding military-related events and filing academic research reports, prosecutors said.
A reward of NT$3,000 was to be offered for each contact who follows Fire News’ Facebook page, as long as the member read and “liked” at least 70 percent of its posts.
For each member who interacted with the page’s content creators at least once every two weeks for a minimum of two months, NT$5,000 was to be offered.
Rewards of NT$10,000 were to be given for securing offline meetings with contacts, with the aim of developing closer relationships and building trust by having the contact share personal information and take photographs together.
For closer two-person exchanges in which the contact opened up about their feelings regarding politics and deeply personal information, a reward of NT$50,000 was to be given, prosecutors said.
Following these encounters, Zhou, Wang and others were to report to the TAO for further instructions.
Zhou also wrote that the Web site’s content is overseen by New Party youth wing executive Hou Han-ting (侯漢廷) and produced by about five writers.
The office yesterday issued a new indictment charging Zhou with violating the National Security Act (國家安全法) and forwarded the findings to the Taiwan High Court without suggesting an extension of Zhou’s prison term.
The move came two weeks after the office’s search and arrest of Wang, Hou and two other New Party members, who were taken to the Investigation Bureau for questioning as witnesses in the case.
The questioning sparked controversy after it was found that the search warrant investigators used had not been signed by a judge.
Prosecutors in July last year charged Zhou with “colluding with an enemy of the nation to create organizations” — a violation of the National Security Act.
The Taipei District Court in September last year sentenced Zhou to 14 months in prison. The case is being investigated by the High Court after Zhou appealed the verdict.
Zhou in September 2012 enrolled at National Chengchi University, and in July 2014 went to Shanghai, where he met a secretary at a Chinese government agency surnamed Lee (李), who invited Zhou to several banquets and allegedly promised him monetary rewards in exchange for introductions to Taiwanese politicians, military personnel, police, intelligence officers, diplomats and influential figures, the office’s report found.
Lee had allegedly planned to arrange meetings between Chinese and Taiwanese officials in China or overseas to steal classified data from Taiwanese authorities, the report said.
Zhou in turn set his sights on a nascent Taiwanese diplomat, repeatedly encouraging them to work for the Chinese government, which offers generous salaries in addition to a quarterly bonus of US$10,000, the report said.
He also allegedly encouraged the diplomat to travel to Japan and promised to introduce them to Chinese officials there, it said.
Zhou’s lobbying alarmed the diplomat, who reported Zhou, it said.
The office said that it in March last year, during a raid of Zhou’s apartment, uncovered his correspondence, which showed that Zhou had been in contact with Wang and other New Party youth wing members, with whom he exchanged political views and discussed current issues.
It said it suspected that Zhou had planned to turn the four New Party members, but since it did not have hard evidence of their involvement in Zhou’s case or leaking of confidential information, they were only summoned as witnesses.
COMMITMENT: The world’s biggest contract chipmaker said that its new 2nm chips, as well as next-generation, cutting-edge 1.4nm chips, will be produced in Taiwan Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that the majority of its most advanced chips would continue to be manufactured in Taiwan and that it is boosting advanced chip packaging capacity to catch up with fast-growing demand driven by generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications like ChatGPT. Deeply rooted in Taiwan, TSMC is expanding production capacity for its most advanced 3-nanometer (nm) chips at its Tainan fab and is building new plants to produce new 2-nanometer chips in Hsinchu and Taichung in 2025. The chipmaker also plans to produce next-generation, cutting-edge 1.4-nanometer chips, which are currently under development, at home, it
Former US president Donald Trump has been indicted on charges of mishandling classified documents at his Florida estate, a remarkable development that makes him the first former US president to face criminal charges by the federal government that he once oversaw. The US Department of Justice was expected to make public a seven-count indictment ahead of a historic court appearance next week amid a presidential campaign punctuated by criminal prosecutions in multiple states. The indictment carries unmistakably grave legal consequences, including the possibility of prison if Trump is convicted. It also has enormous political implications, potentially upending a Republican presidential primary that Trump
PASSAGE DISPUTE: A US and Canadian transit was a provocation and an attempt to ‘exercise hegemony of navigation,’ China’s defense ministry told a forum in Singapore The Ministry of National Defense yesterday urged the Chinese Communist Party to avoid provocative behavior after a Chinese navy ship crossed the paths of a US destroyer and Canadian frigate transiting the Taiwan Strait. A Chinese ship on Saturday “executed maneuvers in an unsafe manner in the vicinity of [the USS] Chung-Hoon,” an American destroyer, the US Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement. The vessel “overtook Chung-Hoon on their port side and crossed their bow at 150 yards [137m]. Chung-Hoon maintained course and slowed to 10 [knots, 18.5kph] to avoid a collision,” the statement said. It then “crossed Chung-Hoon’s bow a second time
HARD-WON FREEDOM: Beijing’s 1989 crackdown on protesters has not been and should not be forgotten, as China tightens its grip on Hong Kong, Lai said Taiwanese enjoy democracy and freedom and have multiple ways to express their creativity, and hopefully young people in China would also one day have the freedom to sing and express themselves, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday, commemorating the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Yesterday was the 34th anniversary of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s bloody crackdown on student-led protests in Beijing in 1989, also known as the June Fourth Incident. Tsai posted a photograph taken in March in a subway station in Guizhou, China, where hundreds of young people gathered to sing People With No Ideals Don’t Get Hurt (沒有理想的人不傷心), saying that they