A Chinese national who previously studied in Taiwan is believed to be behind as many as 150 threatening messages sent to government offices and public transportation systems in Taiwan in the past few years, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said on Monday.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chuang Jui-hsiung (莊瑞雄) asked a hearing at the legislature in Taipei what law enforcement was doing about disruptions allegedly caused by the suspect, whom authorities have identified as Zhang Haichuan (張海川).
The threats have wasted police time and might be a form of Chinese “cognitive warfare,” Chuang said, adding that the government needs a better standard operating procedure to respond to such incidents.
Photo: CNA
Since September 2021, Zhang is believed to have e-mailed bomb threats to Taiwan High Speed Rail, the Taipei MRT and Taoyuan Airport MRT, among others, while also sending threatening messages to government institutions, including the Presidential Office and the Executive Yuan.
CIB information shows that police have referred Zhang to the Taichung District Prosecutors’ Office over his alleged involvement in 68 separate threats, although prosecutors now believe the actual number could be closer to 150.
Zhang, a native of China’s Zhejiang Province, from 2016 to 2021 studied at Providence University in Taichung and the graduate school at National Taiwan University of Technology in Taipei.
After a fellow Chinese student reportedly rejected his romantic advances, he allegedly sent a threat targeting the institution she attended, leading to his arrest on suspicion of criminal intimidation.
Prosecutors questioned and later pressed charges against Zhang, but did not prevent him from leaving the country.
He returned to China in July 2021.
Possibly because of the charges against him, after returning to China, Chang allegedly began sending threats to Taiwan’s government and transportation network, many using the same pseudonym, similar language, and a virtual private network to mask his Internet protocol address and location.
Minister of the Interior Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) told the hearing that he had instructed the National Police Agency to develop a mechanism to respond to the impact of threats such as those allegedly sent by the suspect.
National Police Agency Director-General Huang Ming-chao (黃明昭) said that the agency had contacted Chinese authorities about the charges against Zhang, but added that there would be “some difficulty” bringing Zhang to Taiwan to face trial.
While Taiwan and China have cooperated on combating crime in the past, both have typically adhered to the principle of not turning over their own citizens to the other side.
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