The Ciaotou District Prosecutors’ Office in Kaohsiung has indicted a man on suspicion of recruiting people for sponsored tours to China, during which they were urged to vote for specific presidential candidates next month.
China Pan-Blue Association member Chen Chih-cheng (鄭志成) is the first person to be charged in one of many Chinese election interference cases prosecutors are investigating in the lead-up to the Jan. 13 presidential and legislative elections.
Cheng was charged with contravening the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法), the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act (總統副總統選舉罷免法) and the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法).
Photo: Wu Cheng-feng, Taipei Times
From May, Cheng recruited about 140 Taiwanese to visit China on tours mostly paid for by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO), prosecutors said.
Each person only needed to pay between NT$10,000 and NT$20,000, and Cheng received NT$2,000 for each person he recruited, they said.
The tour groups met with representatives from the TAO and the Chinese United Front Work Department, who urged them to vote for the “pan-blue camp” and “to remove the Democratic Progressive Party government from office,” prosecutors said.
Photo: CNA
In other election news, Pingtung County Council Speaker Chou Tien-lun (周典論) was yesterday detained on suspicion of buying signatures for Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) to help him get the endorsements needed for to run in the presidential election.
Pingtung County prosecutors said that after receiving a tip-off that Chou had bought signatures for Gou for NT$200 each, they raided Chou’s residence at about 6am on Monday and took him in for questioning.
Suspecting Chou had breached the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act, prosecutors filed a motion to detain him, which the Pingtung District Court approved early yesterday, the Pingtung District Prosecutors’ Office said.
Chou denied buying signatures and said that the funds involved were wages given to staffers to collect signatures, district court judge Wang Yi-chi (王以齊) said.
The judge did not accept Chou’s version of events as many witnesses testified that the fee was used to buy signatures, testimony that was corroborated by evidence, Wang said.
Gou announced his bid to run for president as an independent in late August.
Despite collecting enough signatures, he dropped out of the race and did not register his candidacy by the Nov. 24 deadline.
‘CROWN JEWEL’: Washington ‘can delay and deter’ Chinese President Xi Jinping’s plans for Taiwan, but it is ‘a very delicate situation there,’ the secretary of state said US President Donald Trump is opposed to any change to Taiwan’s “status quo” by force or extortion and would maintain that policy, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Hugh Hewitt Show host on Wednesday. The US’ policy is to maintain Taiwan’s “status quo” and to oppose any changes in the situation by force or extortion, Rubio said. Hewitt asked Rubio about the significance of Trump earlier this month speaking with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) at the White House, a meeting that Hewitt described as a “big deal.” Asked whether the meeting was an indication of the
‘RELATIVELY STRONG LANGUAGE’: An expert said the state department has not softened its language on China and was ‘probably a little more Taiwan supportive’ China’s latest drills near Taiwan on Monday were “brazen and irresponsible threats,” a US Department of State spokesperson said on Tuesday, while reiterating Washington’s decades-long support of Taipei. “China cannot credibly claim to be a ‘force for stability in a turbulent world’ while issuing brazen and irresponsible threats toward Taiwan,” the unnamed spokesperson said in an e-mailed response to media queries. Washington’s enduring commitment to Taiwan will continue as it has for 45 years and the US “will continue to support Taiwan in the face of China’s military, economic, informational and diplomatic pressure campaign,” the e-mail said. “Alongside our international partners, we firmly
KAOHSIUNG CEREMONY: The contract chipmaker is planning to build 5 fabs in the southern city to gradually expand its 2-nanometer chip capacity Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, yesterday confirmed that it plans to hold a ceremony on March 31 to unveil a capacity expansion plan for its most advanced 2-nanometer chips in Kaohsiung, demonstrating its commitment to further investment at home. The ceremony is to be hosted by TSMC cochief operating officer Y.P. Chyn (秦永沛). It did not disclose whether Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) and high-ranking government officials would attend the ceremony. More details are to be released next week, it said. The chipmaker’s latest move came after its announcement earlier this month of an additional US$100 billion
Authorities yesterday elaborated on the rules governing Employment Gold Cards after a US cardholder was barred from entering Taiwan for six years after working without a permit during a 2023 visit. American YouTuber LeLe Farley was barred after already being approved for an Employment Gold Card, he said in a video published on his channel on Saturday. Farley, who has more than 420,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel, was approved for his Gold Card last month, but was told at a check-in counter at the Los Angeles International Airport that he could not enter Taiwan. That was because he previously participated in two
RSS