Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Cheng Cheng-chien (鄭正鈐), who represents Hsinchu City, is the subject of a High Prosecutors’ Office investigation over allegations of leaking government information to Beijing, the office said yesterday.
The office said that it accepted a complaint by Lin Chih-chieh (林志潔), the spokeswoman of a group working to recall Cheng and Hsinchu City Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安), who accused Cheng of accepting Chinese funding for election campaigns and leaking government information.
A former assistant in Cheng’s office alleged that during his time as an elected representative, Cheng accepted funding from the Chinese Communist Party, the criminal complaint filed by Lin said.
Photo: Liu Wan-lin, Taipei Times
Lin also accused the 56-year-old Cheng of instructing the assistant to use his mobile phone to reply to messages from China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) and transmit official government documents to it via the social media app WeChat, the complaint said.
The office said that it has accepted Lin’s complaint and its team responsible for “major national security and social order threats” is investigating.
Cheng on Tuesday said in a statement that he has never accepted funding from China in his political career and never handed any confidential materials related to national security to the TAO.
The recall campaign against him “has clearly fallen into disarray and is now resorting to smears and red-baiting,” Cheng said, adding that anyone with real evidence is welcome to file charges.
In light of the “repeated false accusations,” he said he would pursue legal action and not show any leniency.
In addition, Lin, a member of the Democratic Progressive Party and a legal academic, on Wednesday filed a complaint with the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office accusing Cheng of contravening the Political Donations Act (政治獻金法), the National Security Act (國家安全法) and the Anti-Corruption Act (貪汙治罪條例).
The Taipei office has accepted the compliant and listed Cheng as a suspect, tasking its special anti-corruption team to investigate the allegations.
INCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday. The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy Ouyang (歐陽漢源) said. The airline has recorded a steady rise in tourist and business travel to and from Taipei, and aims to provide more flexible travel arrangements for passengers, said Ouyang, who assumed the post in July last year. From now until Saturday next week, four additional flights would depart from Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, Friday
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday reported the return of large-scale Chinese air force activities after their unexplained absence for more than two weeks, which had prompted speculation regarding Beijing’s motives. China usually sends fighter jets, drones and other military aircraft around the nation on a daily basis. Interruptions to such routine are generally caused by bad weather. The Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 26 Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait over the previous 24 hours. It last reported that many aircraft on Feb. 25, when it spotted 30 aircraft, saying Beijing was carrying out another “joint combat
Taiwan successfully defended its women’s 540 kilogram title and won its first-ever men’s 640 kg title at the 2026 World Indoor Tug of War Championships in Taipei yesterday. In the women’s event, Taiwan’s eight-person squad reached the final following a round-robin preliminary round and semifinals featuring teams from Ukraine, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, the Basque Country and South Korea. In the finals, they swept the Basque team 2-0, giving the team composed mainly of National Taiwan Normal University students and graduates its second championship in a row, and its fourth in five years. Team captain
When Paraguayan opposition lawmaker Leidy Galeano returned from an all-expenses-paid tour of six Chinese cities late last year, she was convinced Paraguay risked missing out on major economic gains by sticking with longtime ally Taipei over Beijing — a message that participants on the trip heard repeatedly from Chinese officials. “Everything I saw there, I wanted for my country,” said Galeano, a member of the newly-formed Yo Creo party whose senior figures have spoken favorably about China. This trip and others like it — which people familiar with the visits said were at the invitation of the Chinese consulate in Sao Paulo
RSS