Chu Cheng-chi (朱政騏), a former legislative assistant who won a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) primary for a Taipei city council seat, was indicted yesterday on charges of spying for China.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office accused Chu of using his access to legislative offices while working as an aide to former legislator Ho Chih-wei (何志偉) and Taipei City Councilor Chung Pei-ling (鍾佩玲) to obtain and transmit confidential documents in August 2022.
Prosecutors said that he received 20,000 yuan (US$2,905) in return.
Photo: Tung Kuan-yi, Taipei Times
In July 2022, Chu received an iPhone 13 Pro from Hu Peng-nien (胡鵬年), a retired Executive Yuan official linked to a separate espionage case, and used it to communicate with contacts in China, prosecutors said.
On Aug. 23 and 24, 2022, he entered legislative offices in his role as an aide and accessed documents classified as “confidential,” and photographed and transmitted them to a Chinese contact surnamed Wang (王) in exchange for payment, they said.
Prosecutors indicted Chu over alleged contraventions of the National Security Act (國家安全法), and asked the courts to confiscate any illicit gains and sentence him to at least five years in prison.
The DPP’s Taipei City chapter convened an emergency meeting of its executive and review committees at noon yesterday, at which they expelled Chu from the party and denied his primary nomination.
A replacement candidate would be determined by the party’s central leadership, it said.
Chu yesterday denied wrongdoing, saying he had not leaked state secrets, harmed Taiwan’s interests or received illicit gains.
He said he had fully cooperated with investigators and would continue to do so, expressing confidence in a fair trial.
Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Jacky Chen (陳清龍) said that the DPP, known for championing its slogan of “resist China, defend Taiwan,” often uses “red-baiting” tactics to suppress political opponents.
“While it talks tough on China, its actions are seen as cozying up to Beijing,” Chen said.
President William Lai (賴清德), as DPP chairman, should conduct a thorough investigation within the party to determine “how many Chinese spies are still being sheltered” by the party, he said, referencing the cases of former Presidential Office consultant Wu Shang-yu (吳尚雨), former DPP staff member Chiu Shih-yuan (邱世元) and former Ministry of Foreign Affairs assistant Ho Jen-chieh (何仁傑), who were convicted in a first ruling last year for spying for China while working for the government.
“From the Presidential Office and the National Security Council to the Legislative Yuan, cases of Chinese espionage within the DPP keep emerging,” Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hsu Yu-chen (許宇甄) said. “The DPP government has essentially become a nest of spies and its so-called ‘resist China, defend Taiwan’ stance is nothing more than a political scam.”
DPP Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) said that regardless of a person’s status, any contact with hostile foreign forces or leaks of sensitive information pose a serious threat to national security.
The government should conduct a thorough review of background checks and access privileges, and require regular re-evaluations for sensitive personnel, while improving early-warning and protective measures to prevent similar incidents from happening again, he said.
The Chu case stems from a broader probe into an alleged Chinese espionage network involving businessman Cheng Ming-chia (鄭明嘉) and Hu. Both were indicted in January for allegedly recruiting military personnel and young political figures for China’s United Front Work Department, with prosecutors seeking a sentence of at least 10 years for Cheng.
Additional reporting by Ho Yu-hua, Chen Cheng-yu and Chen Chih-cheng
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