The New Taipei District Court yesterday sentenced Chinese immigrant Xu Chunying (徐春鶯) to seven years in prison for fraud, helping Chinese nationals illegally enter Taiwan and acting at Beijing’s direction to influence Taiwanese politics.
The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said it found that Xu and Cross-Strait Marriage Harmony Promotion Association chairman Chung Chin-ming (鍾錦明) had maintained long-term contact with Yang Wentao (楊文濤), director of the Cross-Strait Marriage and Family Service Center, and Sun Xian (孫憲), vice director of the Shanghai China Council for the Promotion of Peaceful National Reunification.
Prosecutors accused Xu and Chung of accepting instructions to campaign for certain political candidates, while Xu helped Sun and her friend Luo Ying (羅穎) enter Taiwan in October last year under the guise of a business exchange.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
The court in a news release said that Xu kept in contact with former Taipei deputy mayor Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) at Sun’s instruction.
Furthermore, after initiating contact with then-TPP chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) in January 2023 ahead of his run for president, Xu learned of the party’s intention to establish a new immigrants’ committee, its desire to recruit her as its chair and its interest in including her on its legislator-at-large list, the court said.
Prosecutors also alleged that Xu handled NT$28.75 million (US$890,700) in unreported remittances, earning more than NT$240,000 in illegal proceeds.
She colluded with a friend’s company to forge labor insurance and employment documents for her daughter Pu Chi-cheng (卜?正), fraudulently obtaining NT$26.97 million in loans, prosecutors said.
New Taipei City prosecutors in November last year secured a court order to hold Xu incommunicado.
In March, they indicted Xu, Pu, Chung and Luo on charges including contravening the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法) and the Banking Act (銀行法), document forgery and fraud.
During the trial, Xu admitted to fraudulent loan applications and illegal currency exchange activities, but denied breaching the Anti-Infiltration Act and covering up Sun’s visit to Taiwan.
Xu was released on NT$2 million bail and placed under electronic monitoring after the trial concluded on June 9.
She did not appear in court yesterday to hear the verdict.
TPP spokeswoman Chang Tung (張彤) said that the party had “absolutely no knowledge” of the court’s findings that Xu had been reporting to Beijing.
“None of the criminal facts published by the court conclude that the TPP ever accepted instructions from foreign forces or cooperated with such behavior,” Chang said in a statement. “We are completely baffled as to how the district court concluded that she ‘campaigned for Ko Wen-je under the Chinese Communist Party’s instructions.’”
Chang categorically denied that the TPP’s policies have ever been influenced by foreign forces, leaving “no room for ambiguity.”
The ruling “forcibly linked” Xu’s participation in Ko’s news conferences and election-eve rallies with the allegation that she was instructed to demand a safe spot on the TPP’s legislator-at-large list, Chang said, describing the conclusion as “completely contrary to the facts.”
While acknowledging that Xu had been considered for the party’s legislator-at-large list, Chang said that she was ultimately not selected, as she was not interested.
Xu “has never participated in the TPP’s decisionmaking,” she added.
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