The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday expelled a former assistant of Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), the nation’s current national security chief and former foreign minister, from the party over the former’s alleged involvement in a Chinese espionage case.
The DPP’s chapter in Yilan County announced the expulsion following an emergency meeting yesterday to discuss the case involving Ho Jen-chieh (何仁傑), who worked for Wu during his tenure as the foreign minister between 2018 and 2024.
Chiu Chia-chin (邱嘉進), head of the DPP’s Yilan chapter , said the decision was unanimous, citing Ho’s alleged actions as severely damaging to the party’s reputation and “running counter to the DPP’s core values of freedom, democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.”
Photo: Taipei Times
Taipei prosecutors detained Ho on Saturday after searching his residence.
Ho’s arrest adds to a growing list of individuals suspected of spying for Chinese intelligence services while working for senior DPP government officials, which has been in power since 2016.
Other suspects in the case include former Presidential Office consultant Wu Shang-yu (吳尚雨), former DPP staff member Chiu Shih-yuan (邱世元) and councilor assistant Huang Chu-jing (黃取榮), who were detained in February.
According to the prosecutors, Huang is believed to have been recruited by Beijing’s intelligence services while doing business in China.
Prosecutors allege that after returning to Taiwan, Huang started working with Ho, Wu Shang-yu and Chiu to gather confidential information about President William Lai (賴清德) and other top officials.
According to a report by the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday, Joseph Wu first hired Ho when he began his tenure as National Security Council (NSC) secretary-general under then-president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in May 2016.
Before recruitment, Ho cleared background and security checks conducted by the National Security Bureau and the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau.
However, as Ho was not vetted further following the initial check, he did not have permission to access more confidential information, the report said.
Ho later followed Wu to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) when Joseph Wu took up the post as the foreign minister in February 2018.
According to MOFA, Ho left the job as Joseph Wu’s assistant in March 2024, two months before Joseph Wu left his foreign minister post to become NSC secretary-general again under Tsai’s successor, Lai.
When asked for comment, MOFA said yesterday that a standard background and security check was conducted on Ho before he was hired as a contract-based assistant to Joseph Wu.
However, Ho did not have to go through more in-depth higher-level background and security vetting, which is compulsory for all high-level diplomats, it said.
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