Public prosecutors have summoned borough wardens from Tainan who have returned from trips to China amid judicial investigations across the nation into reported incidents of Chinese interference in next month’s presidential and legislative elections.
Kuo Hong-yi (郭鴻儀), Chen Chiu-hong (陳秋宏) and other members of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus at the Tainan City Council at a news conference yesterday demanded tougher measures to prevent local officials from helping to organize junket trips to China.
“China is clearly using ‘united front’ tactics to meddle in our elections, by buying off voters and using propaganda, intimidation, pressure and economic enticement to persuade people not to support the DPP,” Kuo said. “It is now a very serious situation ... We know of many borough wardens engaging in it, from almost all of Tainan’s districts.”
Photo: Courtesy of the Democratic Progressive Party caucus at the Tainan City Council
Many wardens have led local residents on tours of China at low prices thanks to huge financial subsidies from the Chinese government, which is “hiding behind the pretext of tourism and cultural exchanges, but its real purpose is to meddle in the January elections,” Kuo said.
Such trips are known as “VIP treatment after landing,” as a person basically only pays for their air ticket to China, and once they land, almost everything is taken care of, with the Chinese government paying for their tour guide, transport, accommodation at luxury hotels, meals, visits to attractions and historic sites, trips to museums and meetings with local officials, Kuo said.
Reports indicate that such interference not only affects Tainan; it affects the whole nation as those heading the groups are elected borough and village wardens, as well as the heads of temples and apartment and neighborhood management committees, Chen said.
On paper, they are collecting fees to pay for the tour, but are actually only paying for the flight, Chen said.
“We have seen people only paying NT$18,000 for an eight-day trip in China; others paid NT$10,000 for a five-day trip,” Chen said.
“This is no different from buying votes... China is infiltrating our local neighborhoods with these subsidized trips,” he said.
Through these trips, Chinese officials are brainwashing Taiwanese, convincing them that China and Taiwan belong to the “same family,” and that they should embrace China, Chen said.
Meanwhile, officials at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office said they are investigating 115 reports of Taiwanese groups going on Chinese-subsidized tours with more than 500 people involved.
They said that they are also probing 1,820 suspected vote-buying incidents and 822 cases of suspected election betting.
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