Prosecutors today said they are investigating Chinese Nationalist Party Legislator Cheng Cheng-chien (鄭正鈐), following allegations that he received campaign funds from Beijing and leaked government information.
Carol Lin (林志潔), spokesperson for the recall campaigns against Cheng and suspended Hsinchu mayor Ann Kao (高虹安), on Wednesday filed a complaint saying that a whistle-blower, who claimed to be Cheng’s former assistant, alleged that Cheng had accepted funding from the Chinese Communist Party.
Cheng had also allegedly instructed his assistant to use his phone to reply to messages from China's Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) and send government files to the TAO using WeChat, a Chinese messaging platform, the complaint said.
Photo: Taipei Times file photo
Lin also accused Cheng of receiving bribes from contractors by asking them to pay his assistant’s salaries, prosecutors said.
In addition, Cheng allegedly inflated his assistant’s salaries and failed to provide them with labor and health insurance as required by law, Lin’s complaint said.
Cheng was also accused of unauthorized personal use of government vehicles and asking police escorts to drive him to election campaigns and anti-recall campaigns.
The High Prosecutors’ Office today said the case would be handled by a team of investigators specializing in “major cases endangering national security and social order.”
The Taipei Prosecutors’ Office said it would investigate whether Cheng contravened the Political Donations Act (政治獻金法), National Security Act (國家安全法) and Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例).
Cheng has denied receiving Chinese funds and leaking confidential information involving national security to the TAO.
Asked if he had given any information to the TAO, he said the office might have asked for some calligraphy to “pray for blessings,” which he sent.
Asked whether his election campaign materials were provided by China, Cheng said they were made in China, but were procured by Taiwanese companies.
He said he would pursue legal action in light of "repeated false accusations," dismissing the allegations made by the recall campaign group as “smearing.”
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening 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) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
Taiwanese singer Jay Chou (周杰倫) plans to take to the courts of the Australian Open for the first time as a competitor in the high-stakes 1 Point Slam. The Australian Open yesterday afternoon announced the news on its official Instagram account, welcoming Chou — who celebrates his 47th birthday on Sunday — to the star-studded lineup of the tournament’s signature warm-up event. “From being the King of Mandarin Pop filling stadiums with his music to being Kato from The Green Hornet and now shifting focus to being a dedicated tennis player — welcome @jaychou to the 1 Point Slam and #AusOpen,” the
RSS