United Microelectronics Corp (UMC) founder Robert Tsao (曹興誠) yesterday said the Chinese Ministry of State Security was behind a smear campaign to suggest he had an extramarital affair, adding that Beijing is working through proxies to interfere in Taiwan’s elections and recall processes.
Tsao said he has come under attack since he spearheaded a recall movement to oust Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers, including leading a petition drive to recall KMT Legislator Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯).
He wrote online that the Chinese government and the state security agency was circulating doctored images of him with a young woman and was collaborating with political commentator Hsieh Han-ping (謝寒冰) to accuse Tsao of having an extramarital affair in 2015, while working in China.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Tsao offered a NT$10 million (US$305,717) reward for anyone providing information leading to the arrest of leaders or organizers of the Chinese ministry’s networks and to crack down on their subversive activities in Taiwan.
He said someone from the US told him the Chinese agency planned the smear campaign, as the accusations and circulation of the image followed China’s “united front” tactics and propaganda strategies.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lai Jui-lung (賴瑞隆) has asked national security agencies to investigate the case.
DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said the Chinese government was seeking to interfere in Taiwan’s elections.
“Our society must establish strong defense mechanisms, to fight against these Chinese proxies and hostile forces, knowing their pro-China propaganda and tactics would escalate in scope and intensity. We urge people not to back down, but to stand up with courage and resolutely support Taiwan, to defend our democracy and freedom,” Wu said.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
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