The High Court on Wednesday overturned the ruling of a lower court and found three Taiwanese guilty of helping Chinese over-the-top (OTT) service provider iQiyi illegally operate in Taiwan.
There is direct evidence showing that Fan Li-ta (范立達), Chao Shan-chen (趙善真) and Yang Ming (楊鳴) were under the substantial influence of iQiyi’s Beijing headquarters as they conducted business in Taiwan, the court said in its ruling.
The three were acquitted by the Shilin District Court in April last year due to “insufficient evidence” they breached 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), which prohibits Chinese profit-seeking enterprises from carrying out business activities in Taiwan unless approved by the competent authority.
Photo: Bloomberg
However, based on the suspects’ confessions and the work plan of OTT Entertainment Ltd — the company where they worked as executives and which effectively operated as a subsidiary of iQiyi — it is believed that Beijing iQiyi provided operational funds to the company, the high court said.
The personnel, finance and organization of OTT Entertainment were also under the direct control of iQiyi in Beijing, making them instruments for the Chinese company’s illegal operations in Taiwan, rather than simply authorized distributors as initially stated, the high court said.
The firm’s application to establish a subsidiary in Taiwan was rejected by the Investment Commission in 2016.
Fan and Yang were each sentenced to five months in prison, with Chao given three months. The jail terms can be commuted to fines.
However, their combined salaries of about NT$40 million (US$1.23 million) earned over the three years the trio worked for the company was not considered the proceeds of crime, as prosecutors in the first trial in 2022 argued, and therefore will not be confiscated, the court said.
Fan, a former political commentator, said that the case was politically motivated and that he was considering appealing the verdict.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to