The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted a man for allegedly attempting to create a Taiwanese branch of Hikvision Digital Technology Co, a Chinese drone and surveillance camera company with ties to Beijing.
The man, surnamed Lou (樓), a former sales manager for Taiwan at Hikivision, faces charges related to breaches of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the prosecutors’ office said.
Another man, surnamed Chen (陳), who is registered as the head of Koangyow Integration Machine Co and allegedly allowed Lou to use his company as a shell corporation for Hikivision, was granted deferred prosecution, it said.
Photo: Wang Ting-chuan, Taipei Times
Lou asked local distributors to delegate their recruiting rights to Hikvision and discussed salaries directly with people applying for sales positions, prosecutors said.
Hikivision is the world’s largest manufacturer of surveillance equipment. It is a Chinese People’s Liberation Army research and development partner and its main supplier of drones.
In 2020, the US Department of Defense blacklisted Hikvision products, citing the corporation’s close ties with China’s armed forces, an allegation the company denies.
That year, Lou was hired by Hikivision as its Taiwan sales manager, and in 2021 he was tasked with hiring tech workers and investing in Taiwan without authorization from the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Investment Review Committee, contravening Article 40-1 of the act, prosecutors said.
The article says that an enterprise from China or an enterprise in which it has invested in a third area cannot “engage in any business activities in Taiwan,” unless it is “permitted by the competent authorities and has established in the Taiwan Area a branch or liaison office.”
The penalty is up to three years in prison and/or a fine of up to NT$15 million (US$485,972).
Additional reporting by CNA
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