The Taipei District Court yesterday acquitted Wang Ping-chung (王炳忠), two fellow New Party members and a Chinese student, Zhou Hongxu (周泓旭), on all charges in an espionage case, although prosecutors said that they would appeal the first ruling.
After three years of investigation and hearings, the judges said that there was insufficient evidence to show that Wang, Wang’s father, Wang Chin-pu (王進步), Zhou, New Party Taipei City Councilor Ho Han-ting (侯漢廷) and New Party executive Lin Ming-cheng (林明正) were developing a spy network for China, and “their activities did not pose a danger to national security or social stability.”
Wang Chin-pu was indicted as an alleged accessory to espionage and other illegal activity.
Photo: CNA
The five were indicted in June 2018 over alleged breaches of the National Security Act (國家安全法) after they were accused of receiving funding from office units controlled by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, money that prosecutors said Wang and his associates used to set up propaganda Web sites.
They sought to infiltrate political and military circles, and recruit people to spy for China, prosecutors said.
Wang Ping-chung and other New Party members, as well as Zhou, established a Web site called Fire News, and launched the Association of New Chinese Sons and Daughters (新中華兒女學會) and the Chinese Culture Rejuvenation Association (大中華復興社) to attract students and young people, prosecutors said.
Documents showed that Wang Ping-chung had written: I will “work under the guidance and assistance of the Chinese Communist Party to unite and integrate the forces working to achieve unification across the Taiwan Strait,” prosecutors said.
“We were adamant from the start that we advocate Taiwan’s unification with China,” Wang Ping-chung told reporters after the ruling. “How is that breaking the law?”
“The case was wrong from the onset,” he said.
“There should never have been an investigation or an indictment, and naturally, we were acquitted,” he said, adding that the judges had “withstood the pressure from prosecutors to find us guilty and impose a severe punishment.”
“I hope our belief in peaceful unification with China will not be persecuted by Taiwan’s authorities, and I ask that the judges lift the travel restrictions on us to go abroad,” he said.
The New Party in a statement lauded the judges’ decision, saying that they had “refused to bow under pressure, but had upheld justice.”
Prosecutors had “unfairly targeted Wang Ping-chung and the others using deceit and entrapment,” the party said.
“They had no evidence to show that classified materials were stolen or national security was endangered,” it said. “Fortunately, the judges have cleared them of all charges.”
“Although Wang Ping-chung, Zhou and the other defendants set up the operations, evidence is lacking that they worked on behalf of China to develop the networks,” the judges said. “The interactions were normal activities between friends, and did not pose danger to national security or social stability.”
During the trial, Wang Ping-chung told the court that “it was us who recruited Zhou, not Zhou who recruited us.”
The funding was “legitimate income from legal business earnings in China,” he said.
Ho said that the activities they were accused over were regular cross-strait cultural interactions, and there was no intention to harm national security.
Zhou, a graduate student attending university in Taiwan, in 2017 was convicted of spying for China in a separate case, with his 14-month sentence upheld by the High Court in April 2018 and the Supreme Court in March last year.
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