Taiwan People’s Communist Party (TPCP) Chairman Lin Te-wang (林德旺) and Vice Chairman Cheng Chien-hsin (鄭建炘) were found not guilty yesterday on charges of Chinese infiltration and attempting to influence elections.
The Taipei District Court has not yet revealed the reasoning behind the verdict, which may be appealed.
Prosecutors yesterday said they would decide whether to appeal after reviewing the court’s written explanation.
Photo: Wang Meng-lun, Taipei Times
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office on Oct. 3, 2023, indicted Lin, Cheng and fellow party member Yu Sheng-hung (余聲洪) for allegedly receiving funding from China and illegally importing Chinese-made COVID-19 rapid test kits to bolster the party’s election prospects in 2022.
Prosecutors said Lin and Cheng had been under alleged Chinese influence for more than a decade.
The two were suspected of promoting communism and were indicted for contravening the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) and the Anti-infiltration Act (反滲透法), with prosecutors recommending a heavy sentence.
Both defendants denied all charges during questioning, prosecutors said, adding that they either deflected or minimized the allegations and displayed a poor attitude following their indictment.
Lin, formerly a central committee member of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), had frequently traveled to China since 2006 as a representative of Taiwanese businesspeople, prosecutors said.
He also facilitated multiple cross-strait exchanges, they added.
Lin was expelled from the KMT in 2016 and later ran unsuccessfully for a legislative seat in Tainan’s first electoral district.
In 2017, Lin founded the TPCP, serving as its chairman to the present day.
Prosecutors said that in pursuit of Chinese investment for his business interests, Lin regularly met with government officials from the Political Party Bureau of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO).
He also invited TAO officials to Taiwan on several occasions and organized delegations to meet with them in China, they added.
Lin maintained a long-standing relationship — spanning more than a decade — with Hu Chunguang (胡春光), an official of the TAO’s Political Party Bureau, prosecutors said.
Hu and officials from the bureau’s Yunnan Province office encouraged Lin to run for Tainan City councilor in 2018, before Lin later instructed Cheng to run for Taipei City councilor in 2022, they added.
In an effort to boost the TPCP’s electoral performance, Lin allegedly received NT$30,000, US$10,000 and 4,700 COVID-19 rapid test kits from the TAO, prosecutors said.
Lin also staged more than 20 protests against a visit to Taipei by then-US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi in August 2022, during which he planned to distribute NT$500 and the Chinese rapid antigen test kits to protesters mobilized by his party, prosecutors said.
The first global hotel Keys Selection by the Michelin Guide includes four hotels in Taiwan, Michelin announced yesterday. All four received the “Michelin One Key,” indicating guests are to experience a “very special stay” at any of the locations as the establishments are “a true gem with personality. Service always goes the extra mile, and the hotel provides much more than others in its price range.” Of the four hotels, three are located in Taipei and one in Taichung. In Taipei, the One Key accolades were awarded to the Capella Taipei, Kimpton Da An Taipei and Mandarin Oriental Taipei. Capella Taipei was described by
The Taichung District Court yesterday confirmed its final ruling that the marriage between teenage heir Lai (賴) and a man surnamed Hsia (夏) was legally invalid, preventing Hsia from inheriting Lai’s NT$500 million (US$16.37 million) estate. The court confirmed that Hsia chose not to appeal the civil judgement after the court handed down its ruling in June, making the decision final. In the June ruling, the court said that Lai, 18, and Hsia, 26, showed “no mutual admiration before the marriage” and that their interactions were “distant and unfamiliar.” The judge concluded that the couple lacked the “true intention of
EVA Airways today confirmed the death of a flight attendant on Saturday upon their return to Taiwan and said an internal investigation has been launched, as criticism mounted over a social media post accusing the airline of failing to offer sufficient employee protections. According to the post, the flight attendant complained of feeling sick on board a flight, but was unable to take sick leave or access medical care. The crew member allegedly did not receive assistance from the chief purser, who failed to heed their requests for medical attention or call an ambulance once the flight landed, the post said. As sick
INDUSTRY: Beijing’s latest export measures go beyond targeting the US and would likely affect any country that uses Chinese rare earths or related tech, an academic said Taiwanese industries could face significant disruption from China’s newly tightened export controls on rare earth elements, as much of Taiwan’s supply indirectly depends on Chinese materials processed in Japan, a local expert said yesterday. Kristy Hsu (徐遵慈), director of the Taiwan ASEAN Studies Center at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research, said that China’s latest export measures go far beyond targeting the US and would likely affect any country that uses Chinese rare earths or related technologies. With Japan and Southeast Asian countries among those expected to be hit, Taiwan could feel the impact through its reliance on Japanese-made semi-finished products and
RSS