Hostile foreign powers could exploit transparency rules mandated by the Political Donations Act (政治獻金法) to target Taiwanese nationals and businesses for reprisal, the Control Yuan said yesterday.
Control Yuan member Jao Yung-ching (趙永清) made the remark at news conference on campaign contributions during the 2022 local elections, calling on legislative amendments to protect the political process from foreign interference.
Taiwanese law on political donations is mature and largely enforced without partisan bias, but aspects of the legislation lend itself to foreign governments intent on meddling with the nation’s political affairs, he said.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Using information meant to uphold transparency, pro-Beijing propaganda outlets have created blacklists of Taiwanese politicians, businesses and donors who do not support Chinese designs against the nation, Jao said.
These lists appeared to cause Taiwanese entrepreneurs to fear donating to causes that would offend China, which possess much stronger leverage to exert influence, he said.
Such fears might have a perverse effect of encouraging major donors to make anonymous campaign contributions to avoid Beijing’s revenge, with broader negative implications for transparency as a whole, he said.
Citing an example, the Chinese government and its influencers systematically targeted Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) and his donors with disinformation, smear attacks and threats of prosecution using China’s national security laws, Jao said.
The practicality of Taiwan’s transparency laws — which are some of the world’s most stringent — should be scrutinized in light of direct and targeted threats from Beijing against the nation’s public figures, he said.
Separately, Jao highlighted possible flaws in the laws governing subsidies for political campaigns.
Some politicians appeared to have retained sizeable surpluses from the public subsidies they received for their political campaign after the end of the election or even their full term in office, he said.
The Control Yuan has no specific recommendation for legal changes on political subsidies at the present time, but urges regulators to create better tools for monitoring politician’s use of such subsidies, Jao said.
More data and observation are required for revamping political subsidies, he said.
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