Politicians and pundits slammed former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman and presidential candidate, for allegedly linking up with people with criminal records, politicians convicted of vote-buying, and gangsters in regional offices, following reports yesterday that two TPP executives in Taipei are members of Chinese secret society Hongmen (洪門).
Internet celebrity Liu Yu (劉宇) and others alleged that current heads of the TPP’s Taipei offices in Zhongshan (中山) and Songshan (松山) districts, Chen Ta-yeh (陳大業) and Wang Chen-hung (王振鴻) respectively, are members of the Saint Wenshan Group, Hongmen’s largest network branch in Taiwan.
The accusations came days after TPP executives in Tainan last weekend endorsed the candidacy of Lee Chuan-chiao (李全教), a former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Tainan City Council speaker, who is running as an independent for a legislator seat.
Photo: screen grab from the Facebook page of Liu Yu
Lee and his aides in campaign rallies said: “TPP Chairman Ko gives his full support to Lee.”
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members in Tainan said that Lee has a bad reputation as a “politician closely associated with [black gold, 黑金] money bribery, influence peddling, and illegal gangster activities,” and was relieved of his duties as council speaker and councilor positions, after he had been convicted of vote-buying in two separate cases.
Lee served a nine-month prison term and was deprived of his civil rights for three years.
Wu Hsin-tai (吳欣岱), the Taiwan Statebuilding Party’s Taipei chapter director, lashed out at Ko in a post yesterday.
Wu said, the public should be wary of Ko’s “pro-China ideology,” citing Ko’s statements that “both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to the same family.”
“No wonder Ko admitted that China wants him to run for Taiwan’s president. So we see the TPP is attracting members of organized crime and people advocating for Beijing ruling Taiwan,” Wu said. “Clearly, Ko and the TPP are ideal partners in China’s ‘united front’ campaign in Taiwan.”
She said that Hongmen started in the Qing Dynasty as a Chinese secret society, turned into a triad organization, with a strong presence in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and overseas chapters in many other countries.
Saint Wenshan is Hongmen’s largest network in Taiwan and it promotes the concept of a Chinese “motherland,” and denies what it calls Taiwan’s “separatist movement,” Wu said.
“The TPP’s local offices are fronts for Chinese ‘united front’ propaganda, so we demand Ko to explain this to the public, and the government to check into it, as it has become a national security threat,” Wu said. “People need to know, has the TPP — besides signing up as members and taking up chapter head positions — been receiving any financial support from pro-China organizations, and external sources?”
Meanwhile, Liu Yu and other whistle-blowers posted on social media alleging that TPP members in Taichung and Tainan and Yunlin and Chiayi counties, along with other cities and counties, have been involved with gangs and people with criminal records, with some convicted of crimes such as assault, running loan shark and debt-collecting operations, including a TPP city councilor candidate surnamed Wang (王), who operates an illegal gambling site and was convicted of assault causing bodily harm.
The TPP released a statement yesterday saying the two Taipei chapter executives named in news reports have promoted local businesses and have served at social welfare organizations for benevolent activities, and the party would protest the “distortion” and “wrongful reporting” by the media.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei MRT is to begin accepting mobile payment services in the fall, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said on Saturday. When the company finishes the installation of new payment units at ticketing gates in October, MRT passengers can use credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay, the operator said. In addition, the MRT would also provide QR payment codes — which would be compatible with Line Pay, Jkopay, iPass Money, PXPay Plus, EasyWallet, iCash Pay, Taiwan Pay and Taishin Pay — to access the railway system. Currently, passengers can access the Taipei MRT by buying a single-journey token or using EasyCard,
RSS