The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office on Monday indicted Ho Jianghua (何建華), head of the China Unification Promotion Party’s (CUPP) women’s department, and her aide Pao Ke-ming (包克明) over their alleged involvement in setting up a spy network for Beijing.
Prosecutors accused the two of “united front” work for China to interfere in the presidential election and said that Ho and Pao had breached the National Security Act (國家安全法).
Ho spearheaded a disinformation campaign to accuse President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) of having faked her doctorate, the indictment says.
Ho made frequent trips to China, where she received funding and other support, with her main liaison being the Beijing-based All-China Federation of Taiwan Compatriots, prosecutors said.
Ho’s bank records showed that she received 30,000 yuan (US$4,594) from China on Nov. 9 last year and soon afterward received messages from Chinese officials asking her to launch a disinformation campaign titled “President Tsai fabricated her doctorate,” prosecutors said.
Ho on Nov. 20 last year held a rally titled “People demand the truth, refuse the fake doctorate” in front of the Ministry of Education in Taipei and cited China-supplied material as evidence that Tsai did not write a dissertation or receive a doctoral degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science, prosecutors said.
Her claims came via Huang Xinyu (黃信瑜), deputy director of a Beijing-based organization of Taiwanese students and alumni, which is also affiliated with the Chinese government, they said.
Records show that Huang sent messages instructing Ho to maximize the impact of the false reports via social media with the aim to interfere in the presidential election, it says.
Ho and Pao in 2017 worked closely with the All-China Federation of Taiwan Compatriots to recruit Chinese married to Taiwanese to develop a spy network that would gather classified materials from the military, government agencies and political parties, the indictment says, adding that they were also to monitor Taiwanese businesspeople and students living in China.
Following the indictment, Ho said that “Taiwan’s justice system is dead.”
Prosecutors said that Ho has citizenship in Taiwan and should be loyal to her new country.
“She does not appreciate living in a free, democratic society,” prosecutors said. “Rather, she abuses our nation’s constitutional guarantee of democratic mechanisms for the rule by law and subverted national security.”
Prosecutors are seeking a heavy sentence, citing the severity of the allegations.
Ho, who is from China’s Hunan Province, obtained citizenship in Taiwan after marrying a Taiwanese, although they are now divorced.
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