Three people connected with China-funded organizations, including Chou Ke-chi (周克琦) who heads the Gong He Party (共和黨), were indicted yesterday for contravening the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法).
Along with Chou, who also heads the pro-China agitation group 333 Political Alliance (333政黨聯盟), Pan Jindong (潘進東) and Chu Chun-yuan (朱俊源), board members of the Taipei Puxian Association (莆仙同鄉會), were also indicted. Puxian is another name for Putian, a city in China’s Fujian Province.
The three are the first people Taipei prosecutors have charged for contravening the Anti-Infiltration Act since it was passed by the legislature in 2020 to counter the influence of foreign hostile forces seeking to meddle in Taiwan’s elections.
Photo: Tsung Chang-chin, Taipei Times
Prosecutors said that an investigation found that Chou had received money from China to pay for him to organize activities against Taiwanese independence groups, denounce efforts to improve Taiwan-US relations and carry out targeted protests against the US National Endowment for Democracy during the World Movement for Democracy’s Global Assembly in Taipei in October last year.
Money from China also allegedly helped to fund the Gong He Party’s candidates for Taipei mayor and city councilor offices in the nine-in-one elections in November last year, prosecutors said.
Pan and Chu allegedly made frequent trips to China, including Putian, to channel money to Chou, prosecutors said.
Photo: Tsung Chang-chin, Taipei Times
The indictment said that Pan was born in China’s Fujian Province and immigrated to Taiwan in 2002 with family, later becoming a Taiwanese citizen.
In China, government officials allegedly invited Pan to serve as deputy director of the Putian Porcelain Arts Museum, which is funded and controlled by the city’s Taiwan Affairs Office, prosecutors said.
The office focuses on “united front” activities targeting Taiwanese businesspeople and students, and also allegedly provides money to conduct pro-China propaganda campaigns in Taiwan, they said.
Pan and Chu allegedly were charged with carrying out “united front” activities and fielding pro-China candidates for elected office, they said.
The pair allegedly provided Chou with NT$220,000 last year, which contravenes laws on registered political parties receiving funds from foreign sources, prosecutors said.
Chou allegedly used the money to make flags and print pamphlets for the Gong He Party, as well as to organize rallies to espouse Chinese political propaganda, they said.
He also allegedly used the money for campaigning for the party’s Taipei mayoral candidate, Tang hsin-min (唐新民), and those running for city councilor seats, they said.
Tang received 316 votes, or 0.02 percent, in the election, while the party’s councilor candidates received a combined 67 votes, data from the Central Election Commission showed.
Chou and Pan allegedly organized a protest outside the World Movement for Democracy’s Global Assembly last year, paying 65 people NT$200 to NT$250 to attend the demonstration, along with other expenses, prosecutors said.
Chou, Pan and Chu also allegedly collaborated to record and compile videos and briefs on their campaigns and protest activities, sending them to their Chinese handlers through WeChat, they said.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS