Taipei prosecutors yesterday indicted seven suspects on suspicion of using money from Chinese agencies to buy votes for Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) in the run-up to his presidential bid in January.
They allegedly acted on instructions from Huang Daonian (黃道年), director of the Economic Bureau at Changsha City’s Taiwan Affairs Office in China’s Hunan Province intended to mobilize China-based Taiwanese in support of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential and legislative candidates, prosecutors said.
The suspects — Taipei-based Chinese Women’s Federation chairwoman Ho Jianghua (何建華), Chinese Women’s Federation deputy secretary Shen Bin (沈斌), Association of Taiwan Investment Enterprises in Changsha chairman Lin Huai (林懷), Association of Taiwan Investment Enterprises in Changsha deputy chairman Tung Chien-hua (佟建華), China New Family Association chairwoman Chiang Ming-sia (蔣明霞), Hunan Shaoyang City Association in Taiwan director Chang Guo-jun (張國君) and Changsha City-based Taiwanese businessman Chuang Huan-chang (莊桓漳) — were charged with breaching the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act (總統副總統選舉罷免法).
Photo: Reuters
A wanted bulletin was issued for Lian Sang-ming (連上銘), another member of the Association of Taiwan Investment Enterprises in Changsha, who allegedly assisted Huang and Lin in channeling funds into the scheme.
On Huang’s written orders, Chinese officials from Hunan Province and its Changsha City Government organized banquets to fund airfare and accommodation for China-based Taiwanese — businesspeople and students — so that they could return to their home districts to vote in the Jan. 11 presidential and legislative elections, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday.
Huang formulated the scheme, along with other government officials who dealt with Taiwanese investors and businesspeople, prosecutors said.
Funds were also channeled to Ho — a nominee on the China Unification Promotion Party’s (CUPP) legislator-at-large list for the January election — for her campaign, they added.
On Dec. 3 last year, Huang held a meeting with Lin and others to organize a Dec. 6 banquet for Taiwanese businesspeople and students, they said, adding that the banquets promoted Han and other KMT candidates and gave 1,500 yuan (US$212 at the current exchange rate) to Taiwanese who booked their flight before election day, prosecutors added.
A luxury hotel in Changsha, which hosted the events, gave Huang a reduced room rate for Taiwanese, which prosecutors said they considered to be vote-buying, as the accommodation, airfare and other funds were given with the understanding that recipients would vote for KMT candidates.
The KMT yesterday in a statement said that attendance at the banquets and other events was the participants’ private affair, but that the party opposes any interference in Taiwanese elections on the part of the other side of the Taiwan Strait or other foreign entities.
Additional reporting by staff writer
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
US PUBLICATION: The results indicated a change in attitude after a 2023 survey showed 55 percent supported full-scale war to achieve unification, the report said More than half of Chinese were against the use of force to unify with Taiwan under any circumstances, a survey conducted by the Atlanta, Georgia-based Carter Center and Emory University found. The survey results, which were released on Wednesday in a report titled “Sovereignty, Security, & US-China Relations: Chinese Public Opinion,” showed that 55.1 percent of respondents agreed or somewhat agreed that “the Taiwan problem should not be resolved using force under any circumstances,” while 24.5 percent “strongly” or “somewhat” disagreed with the statement. The results indicated a change in attitude after a survey published in “Assessing Public Support for (Non)Peaceful Unification
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
The China Coast Guard has seized control of a disputed reef near a major Philippine military outpost in the South China Sea, Beijing’s state media said, adding to longstanding territorial tensions with Manila. Beijing claims sovereignty over almost all of the South China Sea and has waved away competing assertions from other countries as well as an international ruling that its position has no legal basis. China and the Philippines have engaged in months of confrontations in the contested waters, and Manila is taking part in sweeping joint military drills with the US which Beijing has slammed as destabilizing. The Chinese coast guard
RSS