The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted a man for allegedly attempting to create a Taiwanese branch of Hikvision Digital Technology Co, a Chinese drone and surveillance camera company with ties to Beijing.
The man, surnamed Lou (樓), a former sales manager for Taiwan at Hikivision, faces charges related to breaches of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the prosecutors’ office said.
Another man, surnamed Chen (陳), who is registered as the head of Koangyow Integration Machine Co and allegedly allowed Lou to use his company as a shell corporation for Hikivision, was granted deferred prosecution, it said.
Photo: Wang Ting-chuan, Taipei Times
Lou asked local distributors to delegate their recruiting rights to Hikvision and discussed salaries directly with people applying for sales positions, prosecutors said.
Hikivision is the world’s largest manufacturer of surveillance equipment. It is a Chinese People’s Liberation Army research and development partner and its main supplier of drones.
In 2020, the US Department of Defense blacklisted Hikvision products, citing the corporation’s close ties with China’s armed forces, an allegation the company denies.
That year, Lou was hired by Hikivision as its Taiwan sales manager, and in 2021 he was tasked with hiring tech workers and investing in Taiwan without authorization from the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Investment Review Committee, contravening Article 40-1 of the act, prosecutors said.
The article says that an enterprise from China or an enterprise in which it has invested in a third area cannot “engage in any business activities in Taiwan,” unless it is “permitted by the competent authorities and has established in the Taiwan Area a branch or liaison office.”
The penalty is up to three years in prison and/or a fine of up to NT$15 million (US$485,972).
Additional reporting by CNA
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
Prosecutors today declined to say who was questioned regarding alleged forgery on petitions to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, after Chinese-language media earlier reported that members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Youth League were brought in for questioning. The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau confirmed that two people had been questioned, but did not disclose any further information about the ongoing investigation. KMT Youth League members Lee Hsiao-liang (李孝亮) and Liu Szu-yin (劉思吟) — who are leading the effort to recall DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) — both posted on Facebook saying: “I
The Ministry of Economic Affairs has fined Taobao NT$1.2 million (US$36,912) for advertisements that exceed its approved business scope, requiring the Chinese e-commerce platform to make corrections in the first half of this year or its license may be revoked. Lawmakers have called for stricter enforcement of Chinese e-commerce platforms and measures to prevent China from laundering its goods through Taiwan in response to US President Donald Trump’s heavy tariffs on China. The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee met today to discuss policies to prevent China from dumping goods in Taiwan, inviting government agencies to report. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kuo Kuo-wen (郭國文) said
Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 today amid outcry over his decision to wear a Nazi armband to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case last night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and covering the book with his coat. Lee said today that this is a serious
RSS