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.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said it expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-Wong tomorrow, which it said would possibly make landfall near central Taiwan. As of 2am yesterday, Fung-Wong was about 1,760km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving west-northwest at 26kph. It is forecast to reach Luzon in the northern Philippines by tomorrow, the CWA said. After entering the South China Sea, Typhoon Fung-Wong is likely to turn northward toward Taiwan, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張峻堯) said, adding that it would likely make landfall near central Taiwan. The CWA expects to issue a land
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The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said it is expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong this afternoon and a land warning tomorrow. As of 1pm, the storm was about 1,070km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, and was moving west-northwest at 28 to 32kph, according to CWA data. The storm had a radius of 250km, with maximum sustained winds of 173kph and gusts reaching 209kph, the CWA added. The storm is forecast to pass near Luzon in the Philippines before entering the South China Sea and potentially turning northward toward Taiwan, the CWA said. CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張峻堯) said
PREPARATION: Ferry lines and flights were canceled ahead of only the second storm to hit the nation in November, while many areas canceled classes and work Authorities yesterday evacuated more than 3,000 people ahead of approaching Tropical Storm Fung-wong, which is expected to make landfall between Kaohsiung and Pingtung County this evening. Fung-wong was yesterday morning downgraded from a typhoon to a tropical storm as it approached the nation’s southwest coast, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, as it issued a land alert for the storm. The alert applies to residents in Tainan, Kaohsiung, Pingtung and Taitung counties, and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春). As of press time last night, Taichung, Tainan, Kaohsiung, and Yilan, Miaoli, Changhua, Yunlin, Pingtung and Penghu counties, as well as Chiayi city and county had
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