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.
NETWORK-MAPPING PROJECT: The database contains 170 detailed files of Taiwanese politicians and about 23 million records of household registration data in Taiwan China has developed a network-mapping project targeting political figures and parties in Taiwan to monitor public opinion during elections and to craft tailored influence campaigns aimed at dividing Taiwanese society, according to documents leaked by Chinese technology firm GoLaxy (中科天璣). The documents, collected by Taipei-based Doublethink Lab, showed a database was specifically created to gather detailed information on Taiwanese political figures, including their political affiliations, job histories, birthplaces, residences, education, religion and a brief biography about them. Several notable Taiwanese politicians are in the database, including President William Lai (賴清德), former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍),
RECOGNITION: Former Fijian prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry said that Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy serves as a stabilizing force in the Indo-Pacific region Taiwan can lead the unification of the Chinese people, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former Polish president Lech Walesa said in Taipei yesterday, adding that as the world order is changing, peaceful discussion would find good solutions, and that the use of force and coercion would always fail. Walesa made the remarks during his keynote address at a luncheon of the Yushan Forum in Taipei, titled “Indo-Pacific Partnership Prospects: Taiwan’s Values, Technology and Resilience,” organized by the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Walesa said that he had been at the forefront of a big peaceful revolution and “if
North Korea tested nuclear-capable rocket launchers, state media reported yesterday, a day after Seoul detected the launch of about 10 ballistic missiles. The test comes after South Korean and US forces launched their springtime military drills, due to run until Thursday. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Saturday oversaw the testing of the multiple rocket launcher system (MRLS), the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. The test involved 12 600mm-caliber ultra-precision multiple rocket launchers and two artillery companies, it said. Kim said the drill gave Pyongyang’s enemies, within the 420km striking range, a sense of “uneasiness” and “a deep understanding
UPGRADED MISSILE: The Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology is reportedly to conduct a live-fire test of the Hsiung Feng III anti-ship missile on Thursday next week The US Army is planning to build new facilities to boost explosives production and strengthen its supply chain, a move aimed at addressing munitions shortages and supporting obligations to partners including Taiwan, Ukraine and Israel, Defense News reported. The army has issued a sources sought notice for a proposed Center of Excellence at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky, the report said. The facility would serve as a hub within the US industrial base for the production of key military explosives, including research department explosives (RDX) and high melting explosives (HMX), while also supporting research and development of next-generation materials. The proposed
RSS