Two officials of the Reunification Alliance Party were indicted yesterday for violating election laws and the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法), the Pingtung District Prosecutors’ Office said.
The two men, surnamed Huang (黃) and Chang (張), are head and director-general of the party’s Pingtung chapter respectively.
They allegedly organized trips to China for Pingtung residents in September and October last year, at the request of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO), prosecutors said in a news release.
Photo: Lee Li-fa, Taipei Times
The prosecutors said that the people on those trips were required to pay only their airfare, while their accommodation, local transportation, food and activity fees were covered by China.
During the trip, the participants met with Chinese officials, who said that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait are “one family,” prosecutors said, adding that they also mentioned “peaceful reunification” and the so-called “1992 consensus” — a political term which implies that Taiwan and China belong to “one China.”
The officials also hinted that the participants should vote for a certain presidential candidate and certain political parties, they said.
Upon their return to Taiwan, Chang and Huang convened a meeting of the party’s Pingtung chapter and urged the members, including those who had been on the trip to China, to vote for certain candidates and parties in the Jan. 13 elections, prosecutors said.
Chang and Huang also made similar appeals on online communication platforms, they said, adding that the two men are believed to have been taking directives from China.
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