Anyone who has worked with a foreign enemy against Taiwan should receive the most severe punishment the state can mete out, the Presidential Office said yesterday, following a report that a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) staffer’s cellphone contained a Chinese spying app.
The government urgently needs to implement more stringent national security laws and bolster national resilience in light of the Chinese threat against Taiwan, which includes infiltration of the nation and the use of “united front” tactics, it added.
The statement follows a report yesterday by the Chinese-language Mirror Media magazine that prosecutors found a specially developed app used to communicate with Chinese intelligence operatives on the cellphone of former DPP staffer Huang Chu-jung (黃取榮).
Photo: Taipei Times and courtesy of readers
Huang is one of four people, along with former Presidential Office consultant Wu Shang-yu (吳尚雨), former DPP staffer Chiu Shih-yuan (邱世元) and former foreign ministry assistant Ho Jen-chieh (何仁傑), suspected of spying for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) while working for the government. All four are being detained without visitation rights.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office declined to comment on the report as the case is under investigation.
Mirror Media said that investigators had not previously encountered the app, which they were unable to decrypt, but have determined what information was sent through it.
Huang allegedly used the app to transfer information about President William Lai’s (賴清德) itinerary during his presidential campaign in 2023 and information about Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴), among other data, it said.
Huang, a former assistant to New Taipei City Councilor Lee Yu-tien (李余典), was allegedly recruited by Chinese intelligence while conducting business in China years ago, and, upon his return to Taiwan, leveraged his knowledge of and connections within the DPP to establish an organization through which he allegedly provided information to the Chinese, prosecutors said.
Wu is suspected of leaking Lai’s itinerary to Chiu, who then gave the information to Huang, they said.
Ho, a former assistant to then-minister of foreign affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), gathered information about the ministry and provided that information to Huang, the Mirror Media report said.
DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) said the party has stepped up measures to prevent future incidents, including requiring DPP officials to notify the party before they leave the country and to report afterward, increasing officials’ understanding of national security and conducting background checks of all new party members.
Separately, the Mainland Affairs Council said that the CCP has multiple channels to attract and absorb Taiwanese, which are not limited to the Guangzhou-based Jinan University, where Huang studied.
The university, alongside Huaqiao University and Beijing Chinese Language and Culture College, is affiliated with the CCP’s United Front Work Department, and Taiwanese universities are forbidden to interact further with them as of Feb. 20, the council said.
Additional reporting by Chen Cheng-yu and Chen Yu-fu
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