The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday presented more information and court documents alleging that Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) was involved in a covert operation last year to surveil the daily activities of DPP Legislator Wang Yi-chuan (王義川).
As more details of the case emerged, DPP Legislator Hsu Chih-chieh (許志傑) called it “Taiwan’s Watergate scandal,” drawing similarities with the US scandal in which politicians hired operatives to undertake secretive and unlawful actions to “find dirt” on political opponents.
Wang told a news conference on Monday that last month, he had received details of the Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office’s investigation, which found that four people working for the Taipei-based Kai Ssu International (凱思國際) publicity company tailed and took photos of Wang’s daily movements for nine days in June last year.
Photo: Hsieh Chun-lin, Taipei Times
On June 13 last year, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯) convened a news conference, claiming she had received reports and pictures from “members of the public” and accused Wang of running a red light twice.
Certain that he was being followed and under surveillance by unknown elements, Wang, who was then the director of the DPP’s Policy Research and Coordinating Committee, filed a complaint with the Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office to conduct an investigation.
The office decided not to prosecute the case, saying that while the four people surveilled and took photos of Wang, they were media workers and did not pose a threat to him.
“This is a big political scandal, and Huang Kuo-chang must take political responsibility for it,” Wang said, adding that several people involved in the covert operation had direct links to Huang.
The court documents showed that one of the four operatives was a woman named Lee Yu-chin (李郁衿), who had worked for Huang, including as a campaign assistant during the 2016 legislative elections, receiving NT$330,000 in wages.
Political pundits said that past news reports show that Lee was a close aide of Huang’s wife, Kao Hsiang (高翔).
Wang added that Chang Chin-yuan (張晉源), a key figure at Kai Ssu International, is a close friend of Huang who founded a whistle-blower group with him.
The case also has national security implications, DPP Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) said, as hiring four people to conduct round-the-clock surveillance for nine days, and paying for their meals, transport and equipment would be a costly operation.
“Huang should come clean. Did he pay for the expenses or did the money come from elsewhere? Was it secretly funded by foreign countries?” he asked.
Wang mentioned other DPP or related figures who were secretly followed last year and this year, including then-minister of economic affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝), former minister of health and welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) and former DPP spokesman Cho Kuan-ting (卓冠廷).
“All the targets were DPP members, and the leaked photos were passed on to KMT and TPP politicians who held news conferences to condemn the ruling party. Why did they not surveil KMT members?” Wang Ting-yu said, adding that they have clear links to Huang, as well as TPP and KMT officials.
Taoyuan’s decision not to pursue prosecution has also been disputed by some, he said.
“The public prosecutor took those four people’s words at face value, deemed they were working for the media, and decided not to prosecute them. However, from last year to now, Kai Ssu International has not operated any media outlet,” he said.
“It is ridiculous to pay four people to follow DPP figures, record their ‘illegal’ activities, but not publish any media reports,” he said. “Instead, they gave the photos for free to the blue camp as fodder to attack the DPP.”
“It has all the signs of a coordinated campaign, of a political conspiracy to bring down the ruling government,” he said.
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