Taiwan People’s Communist Party member Chang Meng-chung (張孟崇) and his wife have been charged with receiving NT$74 million (US$2.32 million) in financial support from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to interfere in Taiwan’s elections, prosecutors said today.
The charges come after police and prosecutors conducted four searches between December last year and July and questioned 49 people in the case.
Chang and his wife, surnamed Hung (洪), were formally indicted under Article 4 of the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法), Article 43 of the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act (總統副總統選舉罷免法) and Article 45 of the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), the Chiayi District Prosecutors’ Office said.
Photo courtesy of the Chiayi District Prosecutors’ Office
The defendants allegedly received financial support and instructions from foreign forces, the office said, adding that the case needed to be announced for the sake of the public and democratic values.
Between 2011 and last year, Chang and Hung allegedly received support from sources such as China’s Taiwan Affairs Office and the Fujian provincial Taiwan Affairs Office amounting to about NT$74 million, prosecutors said.
They then created media content that they promoted on platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and TikTok, promoting positions on candidates, referendum topics and other political issues in an attempt to sway public opinion, prosecutors said.
These efforts included the four referendums in 2021, a 2022 legislator recall vote and this year’s presidential and legislative elections, they said.
The posts also slandered Hong Kong activists and urged the Taiwanese military to surrender in the event of a cross-strait conflict, prosecutors added.
A task force led by Chiayi prosecutor Lin Chung-pin (林仲斌), in collaboration with the Ministry of Justice and the Chiayi City and Pingtung County investigation bureaus, searched 24 locations and seized phones, computers, financial records and other evidence, the office said.
Actions such as these pose a severe threat to national security, it said, adding that prosecutors are fully committed to blocking foreign interference and ensuring that voting remains fair and impartial.
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